Spike's Origins
by SmartAlek7
Summary: Spike travels to Canterlot to learn of his ancestors, but gets in a little over his head when he discovers the existence of warriors who defended ancient Equestria. When a mysterious villain strikes from the shadows, can Spike, Starlight, and a unicorn that just moved to Ponyville save the world from destruction and anarchy?
1. Chapter 1

**Spike**

Walk across the room, turn one hundred and eighty degrees, repeat. All while taking deep breaths and trying to maintain a calm, patient demeanor. I had just sent a letter to Princess Celestia in Canterlot, relating to her possession of a dragon egg when Twilight had applied for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I had recently learned of the fact that mine was the only dragon egg that had ever entered the school, and while I had cast off the idea of being a legitimate dragon (they were mostly jerks anyways), I still was curious when Starlight asked how the prestigious school had a dragon egg, bringing forth a research binge leading to the previously mentioned letter.

I felt a cramp in my stomach, and let out a loud, fiery belch, dropping a scroll at my feet. I hastily opened it and read aloud, "Congratulations! You have been selected to take part in a free trial of the Flim-Flam brothers miracle herb blend! Take one of these every day, and see an increase in the size of your- "

I quickly burned the scammer's scroll, irritated that I had gotten my hopes up for it. I began my previous routine, and within a few minutes, belched out another scroll. "If this is another ad, I'm gonna-" I stopped talking as I noticed the royal seal of not only Celestia, but Luna too. Unrolling it, I read:

Dear Spike,

I've been waiting for you to ask. Luna and I have set aside some time for you. Please visit us in Canterlot Palace the day after tomorrow.

Your friends, Celestia and Luna

Whoa. I've known Twilight long enough to know how hard it is to move stuff aside on short notice, and it can't be any easier for the two ruling monarchs in Canterlot, especially to a date so soon. I rushed off to find Twilight and tell her the good/bad news. Good news because I was apparently going to get a detailed explanation. Bad news because that meant a helping hoof from the Princess of Friendship (and checklists), meaning that I was gonna have a claw cramp and a week of relentless nightmares involving checkboxes.

* * *

"Bye Twilight! Bye Rarity! I'll be back soon guys!" I called from the train car I was on. As the train began to pull forward, I sat back and watched as the scenery flew by with increasing speed.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard, "Excuse me."

I turned around and was confused for a moment. There was nopony there.

"Ahem, down here" said the timid voice.

Looking down I saw a crystal pony colt, without a cutie mark, staring at me with gigantic eyes. "What do ya need, kid?" I said, bracing myself for the torrent of praise that I usually got from the Crystal Ponies.

The expected flood never came, instead the colt asked, "Can I sit next to you?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, I was saving my ink and paper for when I got to the princesses, and I didn't want to use it for signing my autograph for him and every other crystal pony on the train. "Sure, why not."

As I went back to watching grass, trees, and the occasional pond fly past the train, I felt another tap on my shoulder, I raised an eyebrow at the colt, and he asked, "Are you Spike the brave and glorious?"

 _Great_ , he did recognize me. "Yeah. What about it?"

"That's cool, you're like a real live super hero." He said, returning his eyes to the comic book he was reading.

"Did… you want an autograph?" I asked. I wasn't hurt or disappointed, but he was the only crystal pony that didn't completely lose it when he met me, so I was curious.

"No. after you signed the first thousand, they sort of lost meaning. Besides, a hero usually just wants some peace and quiet. That's why they have a secret identity. But you were kind of forced into the spotlight, so I'll let you be." The colt said, smiling softly.

Regaining my composure from hearing this kid shoot out wisdom far beyond his years, I said, "Wow. You're pretty smart for your age."

His smile faded, and he said, "Yes, the education in this era is marvelous. Before we woke up here, Sombra halted any attempts at educating the ponies of the Empire. After all, a smart slave is a dangerous slave."

I saw his smile vanish, and decided to change the subject. "So… what are ya reading?"

"Oh, it's nothing important, just a dumb old comic book…" The little colt said, trying to hide it from view.

I stared at him. "Huh, and it looked like you were enjoying that Power Ponies Comic… I must have been mistaken." I said, pulling out a comic of my own and beginning to read it.

The colt's eyes then became as big as saucers, and his crystal coat gleamed brighter than any other crystal pony I had ever seen, it was blinding me, actually. He pulled out a small crystal on a string, and the gleam in his coat faded, seeming to transfer into the crystal. "You know who the power ponies are?"

Grinning, I said, "of course! They're my favorite comic series." I said with enthusiasm. Then my curiosity couldn't be held any longer. "What's that crystal thing?"

"This?" he asked, holding up the charm. "It's a conduit for excess crystal pony energy. Without it, I would probably burst into flames. It's the only way that we Crystal Ponies can leave the empire for long periods of time."

"Cool. So… what are you reading?" I said, storing the new info in my mind for later.

"It's Captain Equestria: Civil War."

That led into a discussion that lasted till the end of the train ride. During which I found that his name was Crystal Clear, and he really, REALLY likes comic books. I still had two hours to meet with the princesses, so I was gonna show Crystal around Canterlot. As I stepped down from the train car, still talking to him about the ethics of the Superpony Registration Act, a thought popped into my head, and never one to assume things, I asked, "Hey Chrys, where are your parents?"

"in the Crystal Empire, of course, why?"

"Uh… They aren't with you?"

He looked at me as if it was the most obvious of answers, and said, "I'm on my pilgrimage." Seeing as a light of understanding did not dawn in my eyes, he said, "A pilgrimage is when a pony that doesn't have a cutie mark at a certain age begins traveling the world in search of their destiny. Is this no longer customary?" seeing me shake my head, he continued, "Most ponies get their cutie mark in something related to what they are good at or what they like, so I was going to try my hand at working for a place here in Canterlot."

I felt a smile creep across my face, and said, "Let's go over to Joe's Doughnuts, then I can take you to a place I know."

As we entered the pastry shop, Joe called out, "There you are Spike, the Princesses stopped by and made a special order. Said that you would drop by and be able to pick 'em up." While holding up a box of (what else?) doughnuts.

I was surprised yet again. "Th- thanks, Joe." I paused, remembering that Crystal Clear was with me. "hey, can I get one for my friend here?" I said, sliding some bits across the table.

Joe slid the bits back, smiled, and said, "on the house!" picking up a doughnut and hoofing it over to Chrystal.

"Thanks again Joe!" I said, walking out of the shop holding a box of doughnuts.

Our next stop was the Comic book place that I had mentioned, and Crystal Clear said his goodbyes and confidently walked into the door. I hoped we could meet again sometime.

I looked at a nearby clock, and realized that my two extra hours were almost up (most of the time being eaten up while chatting at Joe's), so I headed out towards the Palace.

The guards let me in without a problem. This wouldn't seem strange, if not for the fact that they stop _all_ ponies (and in my case, dragons) from getting inside the walls of the Palace, asking their name and business. However, this time they nodded and let me through with a smile.

The guards in front of the throne room doors did the same thing.

A little unnerved at the change in the script, I walked all the way across the long room and bowed to Celestia and Luna. "Your highnesses."

Celestia laughed, and said, "Spike, there is no need for formalities among friends."

I was confused. But hid it by presenting the box from Joe.

The Princesses eyes lit up, upon seeing the box of pastries, and Luna said, "Come, let us enjoy these in the royal dining hall."

Celestia immediately stood and began walking, presumably to the dining hall.

I stood there in a daze, and Luna nudged me forwards, and said, "You are confused, and that is understandable. We will explain later, but for now, hold back your questions until we get some food in us." She smirked, "Especially my sister, she becomes rather testy when she hasn't eaten."

I didn't have to wait long, because we quickly reached a room that was mostly taken up by a long table that seemed a bit large for two ponies and a baby dragon, and began eating. Celestia spoke first, saying, "So, Spike. What questions would you like to ask us?"

I thought for a few seconds, but the special treatment from the soldiers was digging at the front of my brain, so I asked, "Why did the guards treat me different when I got here?"

"Because Luna and I have decided to offer you the title of Knight of Equestria. After we get a few things cleared, of course." Celestia said.

"A knight?" I asked. "Sorry if I seem a little out of touch, but… I don't even know what that means."

Luna arched an eyebrow, and said, "You don't know what a knight is? Didn't you live in a library at some point?"

"I know what a knight is, but I didn't even know that Equestria _had_ knights. Besides, I don't think that I would measure up to a bar set that high up."

Both of the Princesses stared at me blankly, then began to laugh. "Of course you didn't know about the Equestria had knights, we haven't had any since Equestria was founded." Celestia said.

Luna continued, "As for the requirements, believe me when I say that you fit them perfectly."

"So… does this have anything to do with my egg being in your school? Because that's why I'm here."

"Spike, you are not just any dragon, you are what is known as an Equestrian Drake. And the magical rules that govern your kind prevent the existence of more than one of you at a time. The first one to hatch became Knight, and all of his descendants did the same. I was waiting for you to ask me about your heritage before having you train to become a master of your unique abilities. But… I'm getting ahead of myself." Celestia cleared her throat and said, "Do you accept the title of knight?"

I nodded, my dream of 'Sir Spike' becoming a reality before my eyes.

Celestia's eyes began to glow white, and with a double voice, she said, "Do you, Spike Fire-Bane, swear to uphold the laws of your ancestors?"

Fire-Bane? Never heard that one before. "I do"

"Kneel before me, and make your pledge to serve Equestria"

I knelt, and said, "I Spike Fire-Bane, swear to uphold the pride of those who served before me, and protect all of the citizens of the nation from any threat, till my last breath." I felt the words come out before I could stop them, and felt a surge of power from Celestia.

Her eyes stopped glowing and Celestia said, "You are now a Knight, Spike." Giving me a funny look, she asked, "If I may ask, why did you pledge like that?"

I had assumed that those words had somehow been part of the ritual. "What do you mean, Princess?"

"Never mind." Celesta waved it off. "Luna, could you help him?"

Luna nodded in confirmation, and walked towards the door. "Come Spike, we will begin at once."

* * *

As we walked through the palace towards a destination only Luna knew, I couldn't help myself, and began asking question after question.

"Do I get to use a sword?"

"No."

"Then what will I be training to use?"

"You'll see."

"Why did Celestia's eyes glow like that?"

"She was Knighting you."

"What spell did she cast?"

Luna didn't answer for a moment, then said, "If I answer, will you stop asking questions?"

I nodded.

"The spell did many things, but just think of it as a badge of office. It identifies you as a Knight, and prevents others from claiming the privileges the title holds. While that may seem like a small thing, it actually does a lot, from preventing Changlings from mimicking you, to allowing access to the knowledge of the Knights before you." She said, sounding much like a teacher.

"Oh."

We continued to walk through the halls of the Palace, and I was really starting to wonder what they needed all this space for, when Luna picked a door, and opened it with her magic. The room that was revealed was as inconspicuous as the door leading in to it, with cobwebs of various sizes in the corners, and nothing particularly special anywhere to be seen. In all, the room was small, dusty, and as Rarity would put it, drab. Rarity… I let my thoughts wander as I observed the room, she would totally freak out when I told her I was a Knight. Maybe going as far as making me a special outfit. Then I could invite her out to a dinner for two, and while eating, she would see a speck of food on my face. Both of us would lean in close and-

"SPIKE!"

I jumped to attention, with my heart beating faster than I could process after 'hearing' (it was so loud I could practically taste the sound) the traditional Canterlot voice at close range.

"Are you okay?" Luna asked. "I was trying to get your attention and you just stared off into space."

My face figuratively blazed as I realized that I had let my mind wander a little too far. "Sorry Princess, I was daydreaming. It won't happen again."

Luna raised an eyebrow, and said, "I've never understood that expression… I wonder if Celestia can visit daydreams…" She shook her head, dispelling the rampant thoughts, then walked to the center of the room, and cast a spell.

I waited a few moments, and after a minute or two, I couldn't stand the expectant silence, and asked, "So… did th-" I was cut off when the floor suddenly lurched, and began descending like an elevator.

Luna spoke. "You wouldn't be so surprised if you hadn't been 'daydreaming' and missing my entire explanation. I won't be repeating myself, though. So, when we get there, _please_ don't touch anything."

We waited a few minutes. As our elevation dropped, I noticed that the walls were now a polished obsidian color, and Luna had become very stiff, as if trying not to shake. "Luna, are you okay?" I asked.

Luna spoke without turning her head to look at me, saying, "It is nothing you need to concern yourself with, Spike. I just have a strong dislike of enclosed spaces, and my mind is trying to convince me that the walls are closing in on me."

Huh… Claustrophobia was very common, and I had done some research on the subject. It was found primarily in pegasi and earth pony farmers, and I never thought that Luna could be claustrophobic too. Walking around the Princess to look her in the eyes, I saw something that I could only recognize because I was around Fluttershy so much. Fear. She was probably suffering from the symptoms that I had read about, tight feeling around the lungs, feeling like the walls were closing in, irrational fear… I stepped forward and put a claw on her leg, then said, "Luna, everything is fine." Maybe I could help her. "I want you to stretch your wings out and up, as far as you can." I waited until she had done so, then continued, "Now, start taking deep breaths… in, two, three, out, two, three."

As we did this, the tension in her muscles gradually faded, and the fear in her eyes disappeared. After what seemed like a long time, Luna said, "Thank you, Spike. That actually helped a lot. Come, let us be finished with this vile place." At that, she strode through a doorway that had apparently appeared while my back was turned. And upon looking up, the ceiling could only be seen as a tiny speck.

Following the Princess through the door, there were too many things to take in at once. Lining the walls of the huge room were alcoves holding various random things. There was a sword that looked to be entirely made of fire, as well as a black book that was secured to the wall with thick metal chains, I also saw a suit of armor for a pony that the only word to describe it was 'awesome', and many more cool bits and bobs.

Luna purposefully walked to one of the less interesting alcoves, one with a simple wooden chest, and used her magic to pull an object on a thin silver chain out of the chest. I caught up to her after picking my jaw up off the floor, and looked at her questioningly.

"This is a special charm I invented to help with lucid dreaming, I originally made these charms to help train soldiers. However, I found that the stallions in the guard were using them… inappropriately, to say the least. If you wear this while sleeping, you will be able to train your mind and your soul while your body recovers." Luna said, handing me the charm. Looking around, as if reminded that she really didn't like being down here, she began walking towards the exit. "Let us leave quickly."

I stared at the beautiful pendant, it was a strange metallic blue material, formed into the shape of a crescent moon. It seemed to reflect things that weren't around, like open fields, and laughing ponies. I looked closer into the reflection, while following Luna. Or at least I tried to follow her. Instead I managed to walk straight into one of the alcoves. Whatever it was holding decided to fall off, landing on my head. It was hard and heavy, both traits combined to make short work of my ability to remain conscious, and I blacked out immediately after registering what happened.

* * *

I couldn't feel anything. It wasn't that my nerves weren't working. But there wasn't anything to feel. The temperature was neither warm nor cool, and there was no light for my eyes to receive. In fact, I couldn't even feel the pull of gravity to be able to tell up from down. There was nothing here. Wherever here is…

Words started to etch themselves into the oppressive darkness:

 _When the end becomes nigh_

 _The Six must become Nine_

 _With great evil on the rise_

 _Even a Knight must have allies_

 _With pain as her only friend_

 _The Coldest Heart seeks the end_

I stared at the words, engraving them in my mind. Whatever this means, it was gonna be important.

"Spike…" a muffled voice called.

"Spike!"

"SPIKE!"

Light flooded my vision, just as pain flooded my head. Royal Canterlot voice _again?_ At this rate, I would be deaf before I got back to Ponyville.

"Come on! Please get up! I don't want to explain to my sister how the first Knight to appear in thousands of years was lost before we could even start training him!"

It was Princess Luna. She was holding me and gently slapping my cheek. Raising an arm to stop her from slapping me anymore. "Jeez, Princess. A baby dragon needs to take a nap every now and then. Just so ya know." I said, grinning cheesily.

She scowled down at me. "This is no laughing matter, dragon. You just took a hit to the head from the book of The Timestream, and should consider yourself lucky that it was this one and not its brother, the book of The Nothing." She said, gesturing towards the chained book I had noticed earlier. "This book should have been secured in chains as well, as it is just as dangerous, but in a different way. Like the book of The Nothing, merely touching it has driven many to madness. I am… glad that you are mostly unharmed."

I looked up at the object that hit me. It was an average sized book, but the cover was made entirely of interlocking gears. While looking at it, I said, "So… just touching it can make you go crazy?"

"Indeed. It is known to impart some knowledge from time to time to those it deems worthy. Those that aren't worthy… lose their minds to the vastness of eternity. And sometimes, the ones chosen by the book go mad as well, from seeing things that they cannot process."

I shuddered. "Let's go. I don't want to take another knock to the head."

* * *

"My sister has requested that you stay here for the next few days, to assist in the beginning of your training and to answer any questions you might have. Simply send her a note containing your question by way of dragon fire, and either of us will answer in our free time." Luna said, smiling softly. She continued, "After I show you how to properly train whilst lucid dreaming, you may either work alone or with any member of the guard in the practice fields during your waking hours."

We walked up a (really, _really_ long) staircase that spiraled around a tower, eventually reaching the room at the top.

It was getting late, and I had the opportunity to watch Luna raise the moon. After she raised the lunar sphere, she turned to me and said, "I will instruct you in your dreams. You may rest here during your stay."

I didn't even think about staying up. I had been standing and walking around for most of the day, and was exhausted. My head hadn't even hit the pillow before I was sound asleep.

* * *

My vision was blurry at first, but as it cleared, I found myself standing on an open field. I knew I was dreaming, but the detail was so realistic that it was easy to forget. I heard a *whump* sound behind me. I turned around, expecting to see Luna. It wasn't, unless she had decided to be a large, bipedal, purple and green dragon during her visit to my dreams. The dragon drew closer, and his/her height became apparent, as I had to crane my head back to look at his eyes. (if the dragon was a girl, she didn't have _any_ feminine features) Yeesh… he was massive. At least eight feet tall. He was looking down at me. _"Should I say something?"_ I thought. "…Hey big fella… have you seen an alicorn Princess around anywhere? Dark coat, mane made of magic glitter? I think she might have got a little lost, and I was sort of expecting to see her any minute now."

The dragon laughed, starting out at a hearty chuckle, then growing in volume until it was a full-throttle gale of mirth. After calming down, he said, "Princess Luna won't be joining us, I asked her to leave the training to me."

He was very well spoken, for his girth. I am not very prone to stereotyping, but I had seen with my own eyes how most sentient creatures spent their time building their minds _or_ their bodies. Rarely did I see anything _this_ big with any reasonable amount of intelligence. This guy, however, seemed to possess the rare combination of both. "What." I said, in a tone that I hoped would imply that I thought he was joking.

"Simple. The Princess of the Night is well versed in many subjects, but only a Knight could ever hope to properly train you." He said in his surprisingly soft, but still deep voice.

"You're a Knight."

"That's what I just said."

"I was under the impression that only Equestrian Drakes ever became Knights."

"That is true."

"I was also under the impression that there can only ever be one Equestrian Drake at a time."

"That is also true."

"So… you're an Equestrian Drake?"

"I am." He said, and continued, "However, while it may seem that my words contradict themselves, you should know that there can only be one Knight in the _physical_ realm, whereas this is the _dream_ realm."

This made me pause, he had answered the question before it left my lips, so I was at a loss for words briefly. He was staring at me, waiting for more questions, apparently. I gathered my thoughts, and asked the next question that popped into my head. "Then… who are you?"

"I am the manifestation of the cumulative memories of every Knight before you. And it is my job to pass down the secrets of the Knights." He said seriously.

Sheesh… I should have read the thesaurus Twilight got me. I only really heard 'Knight before you.' And 'Secrets of the Knights.' The secrets of the Knights? Where do I sign up? "What will you teach me first… uh, sorry, I didn't get your name."

"I don't actually have a name…" He said, a little uncomfortable. His voice then took on an embarrassed tone, as he said, "And most of the common things that a Knight is taught require the physical realm. In the past, dreams were used to build up the power of the mind, but you are in peak mental condition, so I can currently do nothing."

I stared blankly at him. "You're telling me that this whole lucid dreaming thing is a waste of time?"

"Yes and no. Yes, because again, I cannot currently help you train. And no, because the charm Luna gave you sped up the process of me contacting you, which sometimes takes years of me trying to break into the mental barrier that some Knights instinctively put up while they're sleeping. As such, I can now help you in the physical realm by talking to your brain."

"Talking to my brain?"

"Just think of me as your conscience."

"Ah." A horrible thought crossed my mind. "You won't be doing that a lot, right? My friends won't think I'm going crazy?"

"You needn't worry. I will try to be discreet, and only talk if it is necessary."

"Okay…" I looked around. "How long until I wake up?"

He tapped the tips of his index claws together, then thoughtfully said, "Currently you are processing time at a different perspective. What seems like days is only mere seconds in reality. If you want to wake up, you simply need to will yourself to dream normally."

Dream normally, huh? I focused my thoughts on dreaming, and suddenly I found myself in a familiar ice cream house.

* * *

I woke with a yawn, stretching my arms out high above my head. I was in the bathroom doing my stuff when I heard a voice, clear as day.

" _ **Go to the training yard"**_

Needless to say, it startled me, and toothpaste went everywhere. Sheesh, I was gonna go there anyway, he didn't have to scare me like that.

" _ **I apologize for scaring you"**_ he said. (I really needed to get a name for him, because then this would only be half as creepy.)

After doing my usual morning routine, I headed to the training field next to the barracks. It was a short way away, being as it was part of the Palace. The longest part of the trip was the seemingly endless staircase down from the suite I was staying in.

I wandered around for a little bit, seeing what different exercises the guards and trainees were doing. I realized to my dismay, that most of them weren't meant for a bipedal dragon to do. As I wandered around some more, I took note of the things I could participate in. There was jogging, various forms of muscle work, and… sparring. The sparring part of the training yard was the last place I reached, and my first thought was, _"Well, I guess I had better get jogging."_

My second thought, admittedly came after I noticed three trainees ganging up on a smaller trainee. And after I heard snippets of the words coming from the largest of the three, things like, "pathetic shrimp" and "weakling" my blood began to boil. I knew what type of ponies these were. Bullies, like Garble and his gang. Before I knew what I was doing, I walked up to the ringleader of the bullies, stepping between him and the lone trainee.

The pony I had confronted sneered down at me, and said, "Looks like the puny pansy has a dorky dragon for a friend. Step aside pal, me and my buddies need to teach gimpy here a lesson in combat."

Apparently only the palace guards were aware of my status as Knight. I began to speak; my voice was so icy and cold that it would have made Jack Frost shiver. I said, "Combat lessons, huh? Whatever. Let's quit the lying game, kay? I don't like ponies like you. You only start fights that you know you can win, you pick on ponies you see as lesser, and you put on a sweet face for the guys in charge. In all, you're just another coward with an ego complex."

His face gradually turned a deep shade of red, a startling contrast to his mustard yellow coat. "Coward? Who do you think you are!? I am the most talented pony in Equestria, you had better start apologizing _real_ fast, punk."

I ignored his demand, instead looking him in the eye and saying, "'The most talented pony'? Should we put that to the test? I challenge you to a spar-off, one on one, melee combat only." Although, in my head I was screaming _"What are you doing?! Are you crazy?"_ The gold bandanna wrapped around his right front leg told me that he was in his last year of training, and the diamond mark on the same bandanna meant that he was the leader of a squad, therefore the best fighter out of the group (because that _totally_ reveals key leadership qualities, fighting for the position of leader).

My gut sank when his eyes lit up at the challenge. He liked close quarters combat, meaning I had probably made a _huge_ mistake. "Challenge accepted." He said with the biggest grin on the planet.

It took a very little time to set up. We were already standing on an unused field, so the Pony behind me quickly stepped out of the ring, as did the lackeys of my opponent. I sat down and began stretching, trying to ease my nerves (I was quite aware of the fact that anxiety and fear would only hinder me during the fight) while at the same time observing my competitor (In my haze of anger, I had not taken the time to note any features other than the band.) He was an earth pony roughly the size of Bic Macintosh, but with a light green coat and a spiky white mane and tail. His Cutie mark was a depiction of a stone wall with holes apparently smashed into it. These were mostly unimportant, though. What I was actually looking for were clues revealing his fighting style, which he unwittingly gave away. There were heavy steel weights on his hooves (the rules of traditional melee combat allowed them, for whatever reason), and when he kicked at the ground and snorted in an attempt to make himself look intimidating, a patch of grass was ripped up, revealing that he was wearing horseshoe spikes (also allowed into the rules without much reasoning).

Having lived in a library for most of my life, my free time had obviously been reading any books that piqued my interest. And while I was hardly as well learned as Twilight, I knew a lot about cooking, muscle building, gem identification, and, admittedly, fighting. He was a heavy hitting style of fighter, the shoe-spikes allowed him to transfer all of his movement into a punch. That punch, in turn, had much more heft behind it, courtesy of the weights attached to it. The weights had a fairly obvious weakness, in the fact that what the user gained in power, they lost in speed. I created my strategy and stepped up to the center of the field.

" _ **I was expecting to have to tell you to spar, but you did it yourself. My advice is to not become arrogant or reckless, and take advantage of his emotions."**_ The voice in my head said.

Looking my opponent in the eye, I asked, "What's your name?" with the same cold tone I had used earlier.

Sneering he said, "What's it to you, shrimp?"

"Oh, no reason. I just want to know who you are before I send you to the hospital." Obviously, I was bluffing. I would only try to knock him out, but _he_ didn't need to know that, now did he?

His bravado seemed to die down a little. "My name is Quarry Breaker." He replied.

"I am Sir Spike, Knight of Equestria."

His reaction wasn't quite what I expected. He laughed hard, rolling around on the grass and clutching his midsection. This had two effects. Firstly, I realized that the title wouldn't be recognized until I made a name for myself as a Knight. And secondly, it shattered my last-ditch effort to bluff him into backing down. "I see what you're doing." He gasped for a fresh breath of air. "You have no chance of winning, so you're trying to get me to back down!" he said between bursts of mirth.

He was right, but I didn't let it show, instead bringing things back to the fight. "Well… you have half of it right, at least. So… does this mean you're not gonna back down, then?"

As an answer, Quarry Breaker stood up and immediately lunged out, trying to catch me off guard. I saw his muscles bunch together, and easily sidestepped. Whoa, I'd never done that before… while he was unbalanced, I jabbed his ribs below his extended hoof, I struck him with as much force as I could muster, but hadn't expected him to be sent flying end over end across the field. He felt really light when I made contact… What was going on? For an earth pony, he was quite the acrobat, though, managing to right himself and land on his hoofs before hitting the ground.

The inner dragon guy (I really needed to get him a name, and maybe a bell, too) seemed to sense my surprise, and said, _**"That would be your Knight abilities kicking in. You have greatly enhanced reflexes and strength. The other abilities you have at your disposal need to be taught first. Because they aren't automatically activated."**_

Much like unicorns, intense emotions could increase the magical power of Pegasi and earth ponies, however, their magic was mostly physical enhancement. Quarry breaker had a really bad temper, and was probably used to the anger giving him an extra boost in strength. That was the case right now, 'cause he was _pissed._ The enraged earth pony roared, an animalistic rage showing on his face. I wasn't worried, he was stronger, sure, but I knew how he would attack, his fury making him predictable.

He dashed across the field, and lashed out with a wide swing, taking full advantage of the weight and size of his left hoof to make a wide attack that I couldn't sidestep. The look on his face was priceless when I vaulted over the top of the attack, letting the hoof keep going. I heard a sickening *pop*, and Quarry Breaker was laying on the ground, clutching the base of the leg that I had recently dodged. Ah… the momentum must have dislocated it. I looked around to see if I could spot a medic, or maybe one of the Training overseers (The overseers having basic first aid training) and discovered one already approaching. She was a medic pony, and she had just come outside, judging from the way she was squinting.

"Alright, I heard Quarry was fighting somepony, where's the guy he fought?" She said in a resigned tone.

Yeesh, the medic was apparently used to fixing up his opponents. I raised a claw in the air, getting her attention. "Yeah… that was me." She raised an incredulous eyebrow at my unharmed appearance, and I continued, gesturing to Quarry Breaker, "I'm fine. But he swung too hard and dislocated one of his front legs. Could you…?"

A huge smile bloomed across the medic's face. "You're telling me that bully finally got what's coming to him? And he injured _himself?_ He's sent so many trainees to the infirmary, we have a section just for his opponents."

The pony walked towards him with a spring in her step, and I turned to see the Pony that I had rescued from receiving a beatdown. The wings on his back told me he was a pegasus, and he had a blue coat and his mane and tail were a frosty gray, in a style that was reminiscent of anything cold. His Cutie Mark was of a shield with a snowflake emblazoned on it. He nodded his head respectfully, and said, "Thank you, sir. I wasn't looking forward to a trip to the emergency room. If you need a favor, just ask for Frost Shield."

"I'll remember that." I said as he walked away.

I spent the rest of the day doing the other exercises. When I went running, I was able to sprint at my maximum controllable speed (my enhanced strength allowed for some incredible speed, but I could only maintain about half of it without losing my footing.) for ten minutes straight before needing to stop and catch my breath. There was an obstacle course, and I set a new record on it. And I finished up on the tactical training, which was really just an over-glorified game of capture the flag, where if you got hit hard enough, instead of being hurt, you were teleported to the jail zone. I had a lot of fun doing that one, and the final round was stacked against me by the supervisors just to give the others a chance. I won in the end by jailing the entire other team (this consisted of pretty much every guard and trainee on the training grounds, because it was tradition to finish the day with tactical training, and I was literally the only one on my team).

I returned to my suite in the castle. There was only one thing on my mind. A cold shower, which I quickly grabbed. Usually I preferred to bathe instead, but I didn't feel like sitting in a pool of sweat and grimy water.

As I stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my head, I stopped dead in my tracks when I found not one, but two princesses standing in the entrance to the suite. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! How can I help you?" I said, slipping into my number one assistant attitude like a fish into water.

"Really Spike, you don't need to be so formal when we are alone. We merely came to see how your first day as a Knight went, and to see if the rumors I've heard floating around are true." Celestia said warmly.

"Is it true that you singlehandedly emerged successful against every guard and trainee in the tactical drills?" Luna asked animatedly.

"You mean that capture the flag thing? Yeah." I said, a little wierded out by the admiration in both Princesses eyes.

"I also heard that you did some sparring. I believe that a young trainee was hurt?" Celestia prompted, discreetly asking for an explanation.

"Ah… him. Truth to be told, I didn't actually do much to hurt him. You see, he swung a punch and missed, and the force of the swing dislocated his right front leg pretty hard."

"Hmm… how did you come to be fighting a trainee in the first place?"

"Him and his buddies were ganging up on another trainee. I don't like bullies, so I went and told him off. Things escalated a bit, so I ended up fighting him one on one." I replied.

Luna snorted a little, and said, "It sounds like he got what he deserved."

Celestia smiled, and said, "Indeed. In any case, you have proven that you are capable of controlling your newfound strength to some degree. You may return to Ponyville tomorrow, if you want."

"But, I thought that I was going to keep training for a few more days." I asked, a little confused.

"The extra days were in case you needed more time to adjust. Most of your ancestors had problems with breaking things and the like."

Luna glanced at her sister and said, "You are forgetting something, dear sister"

The Princess of the Sun acquired a puzzled look on her face.

"Remember? The suggestion from the headmaster?" Luna prompted.

Realization dawned on Celestia's face. "The headmaster from the training academy has suggested that you participate in the graduation ceremony that trainees usually do. Nothing is official yet, so you can still refuse."

"Sure, I'll do it. What is it, though?"

"A simple duel against the Captain of the royal guard." Luna said casually, as if talking about the weather.

"WHAT!? Isn't Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire?" My confidence disappeared like a Cupcake in front of Pinkie Pie. Shining Armor was Captain of the guard because he was the best at _everything_ involving the Royal guard. Tactics, combat, etc. You name it, he can do it by tomorrow morning like he was born to do it.

"Him and Cadence make a trip up here every now and then to visit. And while the Captain is here, he usually does a few duels. In fact, they are visiting tomorrow." Celestia answered.

I swallowed hard, and said, "I said I'll do it, so I won't back down now."

"Good to hear it, Spike. We will see you tomorrow." Celestia said as she turned to leave.

As the door shut behind the two royal sisters, I heard, "This is going to be fun to watch, sister."

Great. I was fighting for the entertainment of the Princesses. I got into bed for the night, and in spite of my anxiety for the coming day, I fell asleep quickly, although I forgot my amulet.

* * *

I awoke to a knock on the door. I quickly made sure I was presentable, and opened the door, and was greeted by a member of the royal guard in his or her (it's always hard to distinguish genders with those sets of enchanted armor) easily identifiable uniform.

He just stood there for a moment, the silence was becoming more and more uncomfortable, so I said, "…can I help you?"

"Their majesties Princess Celestia and Luna have requested that I escort you to the throne room." He said stiffly.

I was confused. "The Princesses know that I know the palace like the back of my claws, right?"

"I am sure that they know. This is simply a formality. Please follow me."

I was given little choice in the matter, since the guard, turned around and began his descent down what I had come to call 'The Eternal Staircase' after speaking.

I was ushered into the spacious throne room, and reached Celestia and Luna.

Celestia spoke first, saying, "Cadence and Shining Armor will be arriving shortly, so I will make this quick. Me and my sister wanted to play a small prank on our guests. So, they are being kept unaware that you are a Knight and that you will be fighting. All Shining Armor knows that the duels today are receiving more publicity than usual, and that the final challenger will be a surprise."

"We ask that you play along until you are announced during the tournament we have set up." Was all Luna could say before the 'guests' arrived.

"Presenting Princess Mi Am- *cough* Princess Cadence and her consort, Captain Shining Armor."

I immediately stepped to the side and stood by the two solar princesses, maintaining what I felt was a respectful distance from them.

I figured that they wouldn't even notice me, so I was surprised when, after greeting Celestia and Luna, Cadence turned to me and said, "Spike, nopony said you would be here in Canterlot. What a pleasant surprise!"

I guess this is the part where I get to 'play along'. "I'm here to help Princess Celestia with some stuff." I said, sticking to a simple half-truth.

They continued talking about various things, until Celestia began guiding everyone outside, towards an arena that had apparently been erected for the occasion. Celestia turned to Cadence, and said, "Spike will be helping in the back." She turned to a nearby guard. "Spearhead, could you give Spike an escort to where he needs to go?" she asked, subtly winking at him.

"Of course, your highness." Spearhead said, smoothly taking the hint. The guards must be in on this as well.

I followed him through some halls in the arena walls (seriously, when did they build this thing?). We reached a room with several trainees waiting inside. The others in the room recognized me from yesterday. I paid them no mind, simply walking to a bench in the corner and sitting down. I reviewed what I knew about traditional arena duels in my head. The contestants would file out, one at a time, and there would be a second room where they could suit up one at a time. This second room usually had a selection of armor and weapons. Upon the contestant that went in before being defeated, the guard next to the exit would send the name of the next contestant to the announcer up top, and send them out. The contestant would then fight until defeated, which was decided by a complicated spell that would teleport them away if they would have taken a lethal hit or passes out. Usually both sides had a lineup behind them, but Shining Armor had years of experience under his belt, not to mention the raw talent that had earned him his position.

"Sir, you're up next."

I was snapped out of my thoughts and led to the second room. I didn't need to do much because the armor was for ponies, and the weapons were too big for me anyway. Shining armor was probably making mincemeat out of the poor trainees, because there wasn't much time after I entered the second room before it was time for me to leave it. I waited in the shadows of the arch leading into the central ring.

" _Alright fillies and gentlecolts. The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived! The mysterious champion that Celestia and Luna have announced will be fighting in the arena against our very own Captain Shining Armor! I have to admit, even I don't know who he or she is. Here we go, the champion who will be fighting today is… Sir Spike Fire-Bane!"_

At the announcement of my name, I stepped out, walking in a straight line to Shining Armor, who sat dumbfounded in the center of the arena.

As I reached him, he said, "Spike? What are you doing here?"

"Didn't ya hear? I'm Celestia and Luna's champion. Sir Spike Fire-Bane." I replied.

He seemed to be at a loss for words, so I continued, "Whatever you do, don't take it easy on me. If you do, you will lose." I glanced up at the royal pew and saw Cadence staring at me, wide eyed. She immediately turned to Celestia and began speaking frantically with her I couldn't hear her over the crowd, though.

" _Alright boys. I want a nice, clean match."_

The captain shook off his surprise and raised his sword and shield with telekinesis.

I assumed a fighting stance.

" _Three… Two… One… Begin!"_

I jumped forward, going straight into a brutally fast offensive. It was really only to test the water, and I didn't put much force behind it, but Shining Armor barely got his shield up in time. I think it also convinced him to fight in earnest, because the next thing he did was swing the sword at me in a downward strike. I sidestepped it and punched his shield. A strong enough disruption could usually break a telekinetic hold on things, for example, the shield that was ripped from his grasp and hit him directly in the face. While he was stunned, I used a trick that I had discovered on accident while doing the tactical drills. I jumped, twisting in the air to land on his back. He had recovered from the shield to the face, and picked up the offending tool by the time I had landed. I gave him a good whack to the back of the helmet, and was suddenly forced off of him by an expanding pink bubble.

Shining Armor was probably trying to stop seeing double and was stalling with the force field. I wasn't about to let him catch his breath. I rushed straight at him, and punched the pink bubble. Again, I was just testing the water, I could hardly expect to break something that could hold off an army of changelings when it was spread across Canterlot _and_ when it was at its weakest. When my clenched claws met the barrier, I saw the light around the Captain's horn waver. Ah… feedback. Forming an idea in my head, I began punching the force field rapidly. With each hit, the wavering effect on his horn got worse. Then he started flinching every time I hit. A crack appeared in the field, and I focused on it.

Bam! Pow! Smash!

The field shattered on my last hit. Shining Armor was teleported away, probably from passing out.

The audience probably would have erupted into chaos, if not for the fact that they were a bunch of Canterlot snobs. Instead, they gave me a golf clap. We ('We' being the three Princesses and myself) quickly made the traditional congratulatory ceremony, and then rushed into the halls of the arena to make sure Shining Armor was okay. He was. In fact, he was giving the trainees he had defeated some pointers.

"You need to learn when it's time to switch to the defensive." He stepped towards the next one. "You need to remember that your opponent could potentially do anything to gain the upper hand, and need to learn to adapt." He stepped to the next in line, and I realized that I was standing in the spot he was looking, right where I had entered. "And _you_ have some explaining to do, kid."

Celestia cut in, "Perhaps we could wait until we have all eaten? After all of that fighting, you must be famished."

Luna smirked from behind her. "Tia's getting hangry."

We took a walk to the Royal Dining Hall. Once again, the number of chairs _greatly_ exceeded the sum of those present. A meal had already been prepared, so I sat down and dug in as soon as it seemed appropriate. Celestia proceeded to explain to Cadence and Shining Armor about the ancient Knights of Equestria. It was all stuff I had already heard, though, so I continued eating. Halfway through the pile of biscuits that had been generously placed nearby where I was sitting, I noticed something. "Hey." I asked Cadence, "Where's Flurry Heart?"

Cadence smiled and said, "We left her with Twilight, a baby would hardly be entertained by dueling, so we asked if she could foal-sit for us. Which reminds me, we should probably get going, royal duties and all."

"If you guys are going to Ponyville, could I catch a ride? I was going to head back home anyway."

"Of course you can, Spike."

We headed out, and reached the Crystal Express. The invention of the locomotive hadn't existed when the Crystal Ponies had vanished, so it was made by the best engineering minds they had. And what it lost in stealth, it made up for in speed. The world was soon zooming by impossibly fast, as if we were being thrown forward by the world itself trying to rid it of the horrible screeching noise. We reached Ponyville in a few minutes.

Cadence and Shining Armor dashed towards Twilight's castle. It looked like this happened a lot, because the crystal guards didn't even try to keep up, instead waiting the entire thirty seconds it took for them to get back with Flurry Heart. I barely had time to step off the train and say, "Bye!" before the train was already gone. _'Huh, they must have been late for something.'_ I thought to myself.

I still had some bits from the trip (I had expected to need to pay for the doughnuts), so I took a trip to Sugarcube corner. On the way there, I saw Big Mac, and walked over to him. When I reached speaking distance, I asked, "Hey, Macintosh, are you gonna be able to make it to guys night tonight?"

"Eyup."

"Awsome! I'll see you there!"

We headed our separate ways. Upon reaching Sugarcube Corner, a pleasant smell drifted past my nose. I didn't know what it was, but it was coming from the sweet shop, so I headed in.

"Hello dearie! What can I getcha?" Cupcake said from the counter.

"Whatever it is that I can smell from outside." I said, looking around for the source.

"Oh, that? It's called the Secret Surprise, Pinkie just made a fresh batch."

"Is it new? I've never heard of it before."

"Pinkie recently invented it. Every bite you take has a different flavor, but she won't tell me the recipe."

"Really? Well I'll take one" I slid the required bits across the counter.

The treat was by far the strangest I had ever seen. It was some kind of cookie, and was covered in blue spots on top of its purple tinted outside. My first bite I took tasted like peanut butter and chocolate, and the next one tasted like cream soda. I would have thought that the two tastes would clash, but instead, the flavor of the first bite transformed into that of the second, removing every last trace of the peanut butter and chocolate. It was amazing, almost magical. I wondered what Pinkie had used to make it taste like this… I would assume that she had found a new ingredient somewhere in the Everfree, because that could be the only explanation for the logic defying pastry. Wait a minute… Everfree. Blue spots… I rushed back into Sugarcube Corner, and asked, "Do you know where Pinkie Pie is? It's urgent."

"She's in the back, baking." Cupcake saw the look on my face, and with a questioning look, asked, "What's the matter, dearie?"

I ignored the question and marched right into the kitchen. There she was, cotton candy hair and all.

"Oh, hi Spike! Did you just get back?" she said.

I walked up to her and said, "I just tried one of your new recipes. the Secret Surprise, wasn't it?"

"Yep. That's the one!" the pink mare said, oblivious to my serious tone.

"Well, I couldn't help but notice that it looks a lot like a certain plant from the Everfree."

"Oh really? I never noticed." A bead of sweat rolled down her brow.

"Pinkie, is there Poison Joke in this?"

She broke down crying, then and there. "There is! _Please_ don't tell anypony!"

"Do you realize how dangerous these could Be?! Like, Baked-Bads-Land-everypony-in-the-hospital dangerous."

"Dangerous? Not at all! Me and Zecora did a whole lot of tests before I started selling these." She had stopped crying, and revealed no signs of having done so mere seconds before. "The only thing that came up was that one of the million different possible flavors is _really_ spicy. But it's only a one in a million chance, and doesn't actually hurt anypony."

"Oh. Okay." I was reminded that Pinkie Pie was a lot more considerate than what most ponies (and dragons) were led to believe. "If it's so safe, why were you crying?"

"I was worried you were going to tell everypony my secret ingredient and completely ruin my career as a baker, forcing me out of a job and sending me into a downward spiral of despair from here on out." Pinkie said cheerily.

I took a moment to recover from the cheery way she said that, then said "Alright, I trust your judgement, but if something happens, get Zecora as fast as possible, okay?"

"Oki-Doki-Loki!"

I left the building, heading straight to the castle. It was almost time for guys night, after all. We had started having guys night every week, since the girls had started cleaning up the Castle of the Two Sisters, Celestia had sent out a group of construction workers to the site, Twilight and her friends now only needed to check in with them every Thursday night. That same Thursday night had been turned into a regular time for guys night. Discord had also become a regular participant after the first time we invited him.

Upon reaching the castle, I found the girls (including Pinkie, but I was used to that stuff from her) already leaving.

Twilight noticed me approaching first and said, "Spike, you're back! What did you learn?"

I chuckled a little. "I'll tell you when you get back, okay? It's a long story."

They left with some parting words, and I went inside to prepare for guys night. Setting up wasn't hard, I just pulled out some snacks and made sure the table was clean. Before Discord started coming over, we would usually have Ogres and Ogliets set up, and occasionally have a night devoted to Hoofball. Now, we could do anything imaginable. We had walked on the moon, jousted, and even gone on pranking sprees in alternate dimensions.

Checking the clock, I found that there was still half an hour till Big Mac and Discord would be here, and said to myself, "I guess I'm early."

" _ **Find a spot where you won't be disturbed, I want to teach you something while you wait."**_

Great. The voice in my head was talking again. I made my way to my room, figuring that would work. Out loud, I said, "Okay, I have about twenty minutes of guaranteed solitude. What is it?"

" _ **I have a quick lesson to teach you. One of the few common abilities every Knight has had. Luckily, I can directly give you the knowledge, and then you can practice it."**_

I felt a buzzing feeling inside my head, and suddenly I knew what he was talking about. I closed my eyes, searching deep inside myself. I found what I was looking for, and pulled on it. It was hard to hold on to, but that was because I needed practice. Opening my eyes, I looked into the mirror, which was seemingly smaller than I remember it being. I didn't see a baby dragon, I saw the eight-foot hulking dragon that was very similar to the one I saw while I was dreaming. I smiled at my success, and retuned to my normal form. The newfound knowledge I had gained had told me why I needed to be alone while I did this. The abilities of the Knights of Equestria, bar the strength and reflexes, were a closely guarded secret, and not even the Princesses knew about all of them. I repeated the transformation process a few more times, finding it to be easier each time. My twenty-minute mark came, so I returned to the table to wait.

As usual, Big Macintosh arrived first, and Discord popped himself in after that.

"What do we want to do tonight?" I asked the other two.

The Spirit of Chaos spoke first, saying, "I happen to have three tickets for a Las Pegasus freestyle fighting event, but watching ponies fight seems a bit dull. How about…" he snapped his 'fingers' and we found ourselves standing in a costume room, and I heard muffled cheering. I looked at Discord and panicked as I realized that I was now standing at his height, I hadn't transformed willingly, so what had happened?

I looked down at myself and asked, "What did you do?"

"Well I can hardly condone having a baby dragon fight against a fully grown professional wrestler, now can I?"

I looked around, and discovered that we were wearing concealing outfits usually worn by wrestlers. With masks that only revealed our eyes and mouths. Discord's was red with a yellow cape, and had 'C.G.' stitched on the front. Big Mac's was a darker red, with green spikes on the sleeves and face. And mine had a sort of tiger stripe theme, colored purple with reflective green stripes, and 'Thorn of Justice' on the front.

Without letting us say anything, Discord briskly walked out of the room and into a connecting hall. We followed him and the cheering got louder.

" _Fillies and Gentlecolts, for your viewing pleasure, we will now have the Triplet champions put up against three newcomers!"_

Wait a minute, was that the same announcer from earlier today?

" _Presenting… Captain Goodguy…"_

Discord ran down the aisle. Waving to some fans (the 'fans' were just duplicates of himself wearing t-shirts and foam fingers that said, 'Go Captain Goodguy!').

"… _The Thorn of Justice…"_

That was me. I walked down the aisle, letting my footfalls be a bit heavier, and for dramatic effect, I let loose a primal-sounding roar. Needless to say, the audience went wild.

"… _and The Peeler!"_

The Peeler? I had to stop myself from laughing as Big Mac strode down the aisle, the mask on his costume probably hiding an unenthusiastic expression.

As we entered the ring, I began sizing up our opponents. One had a long mane and a goatee, another had a spiky mohawk, and the third had no hair on his head at all, and piercings in both ears. Other than their hairstyles, there was no way to tell them apart, with muscle builds that made Snowflake back at Ponyville look puny, and the exact same mane and coat color (Tan coat, dark brown mane that looked like they woke up with it like that. You know the one.). Their Cutie Marks were only slightly different, with comic book expressions with explosion backgrounds. Goatee had 'Bam!' Mohawk had 'Pow!' and Baldy had 'Smash!' each on their respective flanks.

" _Alright boys. I want a nice, clean match."_

It _was definetly_ the same announcer. I got ready to fight.

" _Three… Two… One… Fight!"_

Instead of my usual tactic of rushing into a ruthless offensive, I let them come to me. They obviously perceived me to be the threat, because they practically ignored Discord and Macintosh and rushed at me. Big mistake.

Macintosh turned around and delivered a buck to the side of Goatee.

" _Ooh, that one is gonna hurt when he wakes up! It looks like Bam-Bam is out for the count."_

Discord found an opening while Mohawk was distracted by his teammate's loss, and threw him out of the ring with a strength I hadn't realized he had until now.

" _And Captain Goodguy strikes again! Powdered Nose is down!"_

I was caught off guard when the announcer said 'again' while referring to Discord, and was barely keeping myself from rolling around laughing when Mohawk had his name shouted thought the speakers.

My companions stepped back, the rules being that when the opponent had one last standing member, the fight became a one on one. They were giving me the task of taking down the last giant. I stepped forward, as did he. I looked around at the audience, they were here for a show, and I was going to give them one they would never forget. We began our fight.

Baldy led with a left hook, and I let it fly harmlessly past me. From there I kept letting him miss, stepping back and allowing myself to be cornered. When he thought he had me in a spot where I couldn't dodge, he turned around and bucked. However, as he turned around, jumped over him and the attack, landing in the center of the arena. I had twisted midair and was facing him once again. He charged at me, intending to use his weight as a weapon.

At the last possible moment, I stepped to the side and stuck out my foot, tripping him. He was sent sprawling, and I was very surprised when he got back up, he had fallen pretty hard. He then proceeded to rush me again. My muscle over brains theory yet again proved to be true.

I decided to end things before he could strain his tiny brain with a rudimentary plan. I didn't particularly want to hurt him, so I caught him in a headlock, and knocked on the top of his head like a door, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

" _And there you have it, folks, Smash-mellow is down, and The Thorn of Justice has officially won the title belt!"_

A referee handed me a gigantic belt with an equally gigantic gold plate on the front. I held it up for the audience to see, basking in their cheers. After a few minutes of deafening congratulations, we headed back to the costume room. Seconds after the door closed behind us, I heard the sound of a lot of ponies outside.

Discord sighed, and then said, "And now we make our mysterious disappearance."

He snapped his 'fingers' again, and we found ourselves in our game room. And I was my original size. On the table sat a package addressed to me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's a souvenir from the occasion, of course!" Discord said. "I sent yours to the apple farm already, Mac."

I opened the box and found the suit I had been wearing previously. As I held it up to inspect it, Big Mac gasped and bolted out the door. Probably to keep the suit away from prying eyes. The Draconequus handed me an envelope, and said, "I need to get going as well, chaos to wreak, and all that." He disappeared with a flash.

I opened the envelope and pulled out the paper within. I read:

To Sir Spike Fire-Bane of Equestria,

I believe you should be aware that you cannot hide anything from the Lord of Chaos. Secrets have the potential to create a _lot_ of chaos and, as such, are within my influence. Lucky for you, I am very good at keeping them. I am aware of most of your abilities. However, you can tell your imaginary friend that I won't be 'spilling the beans' any time soon.

Your friend and confidante,

Discord

It actually took me a very long time to read the letter, because, while it was well written, the Lord of Chaos had taken it upon himself to change the font for every word. He even used _Comic Sans_. The monster.

I headed to my room with the envelope and box. I slid the box under my bed, and burned the letter. I also donned the amulet I had received from Luna. I felt like having a chat from my 'imaginary friend'. As I rested my head on my pillow, I managed to come up with a name for him.

* * *

Apparently, he wanted to talk too. I found myself in a pleasant grassy meadow, and immediately saw him sitting on the grass. I used the freedom of the dream realm to create a comfy lounge chair next to him for myself. "Sorry for not showing up last night." I said. "I forgot to put the amulet on."

He lightly chuckled, and replied, "Wearing the amulet is inconsequential. If I had felt the need to speak to you, I would have done so."

Accepting that, I changed the subject. "I needed to call you something other than 'he', or 'him', so I came up with a name for you."

"Well, spit it out, so I can decide whether or not to keep it."

"I was thinking… Drake."

After a moment of thought, he said, "I accept. It is a fitting title."

"Good. It was the only name I could come up with."

We sat there in silence for a while. Drake broke the silence first, to my surprise. Saying, "So much has changed since the last Knight served Equestria."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The city you were in when you were training didn't exist when we were last here. And the device you rode to arrive here was the likes of which I had never hoped of imagining. And there are apparently two new alicorn princesses, which is quite shocking. I can only tap into your five senses, so I could only observe and wonder who they are."

"Wow… When was the last time the Knights of Equestria were around, then? Canterlot is a very old city."

"It was a few years after Equestria was founded."

"Wait, so does that mean you've seen Windigos before?"

"Windigos?"

"Frost demon things, look kinda like blue wispy horses."

"You mean the frost demons controlled by Frozen Heart?"

"Frozen Heart? Who's that?" I asked, feeling like I was missing something.

"Ha! The record keeping hasn't changed much, then. Letting the important stuff slip through the cracks as usual. Frozen heart was an alicorn who held a coldness in her heart that fed off of negative feelings, the more ponies were cold to each other, the stronger she got. By secretly pitting the three races against themselves, she became strong enough to create beasts that fed off of negative emotions like her, and sent them out to freeze the world. She was defeated by the Knight currently serving at the time and the army of dragons he was leading."

"Wow, the story must've gotten twisted at some point, because the only thing we have is that the Windigos made it really cold. Anyway, why hasn't there been a Knight since then? That was thousands of years ago." I said.

"Thousands…?" Drake seemed to be shocked at the length of time the Knights had missed. "I suppose that is understandable." He paused to gather his thoughts. "You see, the Equestrian Drake holds a trait similar to that of the phoenix, in the fact that they go through a form of rebirth cycle. When the time comes that the Knight's Patron passes away-"

I cut him off to ask a question. "Uh… What's a Patron?"

"The pony that you bond with when you hatch. The egg can only hatch when a pony does something to earn their cutie mark, and links the hatchling Knight to the pony's destiny. As I was saying, when the Knight's Patron passes away, the Knight becomes an egg again, and somehow manages to make its way back to one of the alicorn princesses. The only explanation I have for the time we weren't around is that the appearance of a new alicorn or two scrambling the magic, or a newly ascended alicorn found it and didn't know what it was."

As usual, this brought up more questions than it answered. "How does the egg get to the Princesses?"

"I will not pretend to know how it works, but I can give you an example. Let's say a small filly discovers you're egg, and, thinking it to be a pretty rock, picks it up and begins to carry it home. While that filly is walking, she trips and drops it. The egg, by mere chance, rolls down a slope, and ends up in a river, it gets carried down that river, and ends up in a fishing net. The owner of the net finds it, and eventually sells the egg to a traveling merchant, who then sells it to a wealthy noble. The noble, seeing one of the Princesses, realizes that the merchant had convinced him to buy something he didn't need, and decides to make the most of things and presents the egg to the Princess as a gift. It has worked similarly for generations, and everypony who tries to study it has given up."

I nodded, his answer made sense, somehow. I didn't have any pressing questions, so I said, "Well, you've answered my questions, so I'll answer yours."

He had a baffled expression on his face. "What?"

"Simple, you said yourself that you haven't seen some of the stuff in my time, so you can ask about it." I answered. I also wanted to start a simple conversation so I could get to know him better.

He paused for a moment, and when he spoke, he looked like he was holding back a tsunami of questions. "Who were the new Princesses that you saw?"

"The pink one was Princess Cadence I think she's the princess of love and compassion, but I'm not sure. And the Purple one was Princess Twilight but she really doesn't like the formal stuff because she's the Princess of Friendship. And Cadence has a daughter called Flurry Heart, who is technically an alicorn as well, but she was born like that."

"Friendship and compassion? Do you have any idea how they ascended? Those are very vague things to rule over."

"I don't know about Cadence, but Twilight became an alicorn from completing a spell. From what I could figure out, the spell literally turned friendship into a form of magic, and made it possible to be used."

"Hmm…" Drake took a moment to process this, then asked, "What about the device you travelled on? How does it work?"

"It's called a train, and while I don't entirely know how it works, it basically uses steam to turn the wheels." I answered.

Receiving the answer, he immediately shot out another question. "What is Poison Joke? And who is Zecora? You made it sound pretty serious that there was Poison Joke inside that amazing treat-" he paused when I gave him a funny look and said, "I tasted it when you did. But you made it sound like it was poisonous until your friend said 'Zecora' helped test it."

"Zecora is a friend of mine and an expert in the flora of the Everfree. Poison Joke is a plant that has similar affects as Poison Oak, but instead, when you touch it, the next day you will have a random thing happen to your body, it can make hair grow really long, or shrink you down to the size of an apple. There is no possible way to know what it will do, unless you have already experienced it. If Zecora said it was safe, then I don't need to worry, because she's a professional."

"What does it do to you?"

"I've never touched it, so I wouldn't know."

He then proceeded to shoot out _another_ question. I couldn't really blame him, Equestria had been founded such a long time ago that the records referring to its beginnings had to be kept behind glass to make sure nopony breathed on them too hard.

"What was the strange creature you met with? The one who isn't going to 'spill the beans'. I have never heard that expression, but I can guess that it means he won't be revealing our secrets."

"You mean Discord? He's a draconequus. I used to be terrified of him, but found out that he's pretty fun to hang out with."

"Hang out?"

"You know, when you do fun stuff with your buddies?"

"Buddies?"

The language gap was becoming even more noticeable with each question. "Another word for friends." I interrupted the flow of questions with my own (I also wanted a break). "You keep mentioning that you are teaching me the things that are common among Knights. But… what things end up being different?"

Drake didn't answer for a while. After what seemed to be a really long time because of the silence, he said, "You must understand that it isn't easy to explain _because_ each Knight is different. While there are some abilities that appear repeatedly throughout the line, each Knight is unique. I can only show you the bits and pieces, you must find your own inner strength."

I did understand. In part, anyway. "Well, what's stopping you? I don't want to have half of a puzzle stuck in my brain, give me the pieces so I can finish it."

He chuckled, but I had no idea what he was laughing at. "You have a mental strength that exceeds that of any of the previous Knights, I doubt I could withhold anything if I wanted to. The clues that will help you are found within your own memories. The moments and allies that have influenced your life the most are your greatest strength. And judging by the few days that I have observed you and this new world, you have many friends to learn from. You need to look back on these things and discover what you can learn from them."

I was about to respond, but suddenly the ground shook, and the grassy meadow began to shred away like paper, randomly disappearing in jagged swathes. I glanced a Drake, and relaxed a bit when I saw that he wasn't worried.

He noticed me giving him a questioning look and said, "Something is waking you. Your consciousness is being drawn back."

The shredding got even faster, and when it finished, I felt as if I were falling.

* * *

When I regained my senses, I realized that I really was falling, and far. I flailed wildly until I remembered the techniques used by freefalling professionals. I relaxed and spread my limbs out. I doubted that it would do much, because I was falling from the balcony set into the side of the castle. How had I gotten _there_?

I had very little time to think about that, because I hit the ground as my mind brought it up. It was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. I knew bones were broken, and couldn't even draw a breath to cry out. As it turned out, that was a good thing, because I heard voices from where I had fallen.

"Why are we doing this, again? He's just a _baby_ dragon, after all."

The voice came from high above me, and I probably couldn't have heard it if I didn't have dragon hearing.

"If you wanna know, ask the boss yourself. I just follow orders, and she told us to get rid of Sparkle's pet dragon, and to make it look like an accident." A second voice, more commanding than the other spoke this time.

"Should we go make sure that he's dead?"

"Na, leave him, it was hard enough to use telekinesis without leaving a magical imprint, and nothing could have survived a fall like that, especially after we literally threw him down."

A few minutes passed before I heard the voices again.

"Are you sure we shouldn't just check the pulse?" This voice was much closer.

"No, the stupid thing fell and landed like that, when they find him, it needs to look natural."

I heard hoofsteps fade away.

The pain became too great to bear, and I blacked out.

* * *

I woke up and groaned. I ached _everywhere_. The events of the previous night rushed back to me. I sprang to my feet, and looking myself over, the only thing that related to last night was that I had been sleeping outside. In the exact spot that I had landed.

Twilight. She was in danger.

My thoughts to how I was unharmed vanished as I rushed inside, running as fast as I could without losing control, straight to her room. I reached the door, and found it locked. Strange, she never locks the door.

I knocked and I heaved a sigh of relief when I heard her speak. This relief vanished when I noticed the forlorn, empty note in her voice. "What do you want!? Here to laugh at the friendless Princess of Friendship, are you? Well you can laugh at me from the other side of the door, I'm not seeing visitors."

"Twilight, open the door, I just want to talk."

"No!"

My impatient dragon instincts kicked in, and I said, "I'm not gonna ask again, open the door so I don't have to break it."

"No! And you couldn't break this door if you tried, I reinforced it."

Something was wrong. I could feel it. I widened my stance and punched the door. Just like she said, I couldn't break the door. Instead, the piece of the wall that the hinges were attached to broke, ripping from the wall with a crack.

The door fell over, and I squinted into the dark room. I found Twilight's reading candle, and lit it with a burst of fire breath. I walked over to the lump in the bed, and pulled the blankets off of it. I recoiled quickly, and dropped the candle, and found myself in total darkness again. I felt my way to the window, and pulled back the curtain.

And stared at Twilight Sparkle. The candle light hadn't been playing tricks on my eyes. She had red rimmed eyes from crying, and her coat and mane were a dull grey color.

 **Hey, thanks for reading Spike's Origins! My other story, The Burden of the Gods, was getting depressing to write, so I started writing this. I already have the entire story planned out, so I just need to write it. This is just the preview chapter, and the following chapters might be a bit shorter, or a bit longer. Thanks again!**

 **-SmartAlek7**


	2. Chapter 2

**Starlight Glimmer**

I walked down the empty early-morning street, determined to get to Twilight's castle before I did anything else. I had left the day before Spike was supposed to leave, having been invited to help pick the name for my old village (I was surprised that they hadn't picked one already, I had neglected to name it because a name would discriminate the town, damaging the equality I had zealously pursued).

The smell of something delicious drifted past my nose, and I added a mental note to visit Sugarcube Corner after I told Twilight the good news. The town had been named in her honor. I trotted past the sweet shop, and got to the street that led straight to the castle. As I passed the home that used to mark the end of the street, I thought I saw a purple and green dragon lying face-down in the grass in front of the castle. I squinted to get a better look at the figure in the distance, but suddenly my view was consumed by a light blue face.

"Starlight! Trixie was told you had gone away for a trip. She was worried that she would have to leave without seeing you! Did you just get back?"

I smiled, but gently pushed the unicorn out of my line of sight, but the purple and green form was gone, probably a trick of the light or something. I turned back to Trixie, who now looked offended. "I'm sorry, Trixie, I thought I saw something. I just got back from my old village, they wanted _my_ help giving it a name, for some reason." I said, beginning my trek to the castle once again.

She walked by my side, and asked, "Well, what did they name it?"

I grinned and said, "I wanted to tell Twilight what it was first; they named it after her, after all."

"She has a village named after her?" she asked, and then let a thoughtful look onto her face. "I _do_ suppose that would be common for a Princess…"

I laughed. "Very true. Don't worry, though, I'll tell you right after I tell her, okay?"

We had reached the castle, and Trixie smiled and said, "Okay. The usual place?"

I nodded. "the usual place." And waved as she turned to leave. After waving for what I felt was an appropriate length of time (I didn't want to seem rude for waving for too little, and I didn't want to look stupid for waving too much …I suppose I could have been overthinking things again, though.), then took the stairs to the front door, and stopped dead in my tracks. The door was wide open. Not a little open, like somepony walked though and forgot to shut it, but a wide open, as if the castle was hosting an open house again (as Princess of Friendship, Twilight felt the need to do this often). The banner she had for said occasions wasn't up, though, and I found damage where the doors had hit the wall.

While I was still investigating, a gigantic *crash* sounded from upstairs. If I knew where the sound had come from, I could have teleported there, but I only knew it came from upstairs, so I ran to the general vicinity of the noise, and looked around. I saw that the door to Twilight's room was open, and upon closer examination, I realized that it wasn't just open, it had been busted right off of the wall it hung on.

I rushed through the door, fearing the worst. "Twilight! I got back and heard a crash, so I came as fast as I could." I then noticed that my mentor wasn't acting quite like herself. "…is everything all right?"

She looked like she had been crying, and the light from the window made her coat look gray.

"Uh… Twilight?" I inched closer to Twilight. "Did something happen while I was gone?"

I took another tentative step forward, and jumped when a sudden *clap* came from the direction of the window. I recognized a purple dragon, who was looking slightly irritated, and on the floor next to him was a large, hard-cover book. He probably dropped the book to get my attention (he hated being ignored) "Spike! You startled me! …what's wrong with her?" I asked, nodding in the direction of the (now sobbing) Princess of Friendship.

"I don't know." Spike answered. "But, Discord might be able to help."

Starlight looked back at Twilight. "What does Discord have to do with this?" I questioned.

"Well, the last time this happened, Discord did it, but he had to do it on Twilight manually, and I saw her last night; she was fine. So, I don't think it was him." He said, looking confident in his logic.

I caught on. "But, he knows how to do it, so he can help us _undo_ it." I said, understanding where he was going with this.

He nodded. "But… I don't know how to find him." Spike stated sheepishly. "Any ideas?"

"I don't have any spells that can track him, if that's what you're asking." I really didn't, most tracking spells required something with a connection to the target, and Discord conjured everything, so there were no objects to use. I had also once tried to find him based off of the levels of chaos in an area, but was instead led to find Ditzy Doo, Dinky Doo, Screwball, and a _lot_ of hidden party cannons.

His head fell in disappointment when those words left my lips, so I quickly thought of a pony who might be able to help us find him. "I might not be able to help, Spike. But I know of a yellow pegasus pony who might."

His eyes lit up. "Fluttershy!" Spike began to run towards the door, but stopped himself. "Actually, I should stay here, just in case." The little dragon honestly looked scared, but it disappeared in an instant, so I figured it must've been my imagination.

I rubbed the top of his head playfully. "I'll go find Discord, and this whole thing will be wrapped up before lunch."

I took the shortest route to Fluttershy's Cottage. It was a simple path, and I didn't expect much traffic, being as it only went through a small segment of Ponyville. Yet from that distant edge, I could hear panicked chattering coming from further in. My curiosity got the better of me, and I headed towards the town square to see what all the fuss was about. When I finally got there, my eyes widened in shock. I didn't even know there were this many ponies in the town, and I certainly didn't think this many ponies could be crammed into the seemingly tiny town center.

I immediately noticed a similarity between every pony in the crowd. Newspapers. Everypony had at least one, if not more. By chance, I found one of them lying discarded on the ground. The paper was completely covered in various bits of breaking news.

 **The fall of Canterlot**

 _Numerous eyewitness reports have stated that the city of Canterlot has fallen to a mysterious alicorn who calls herself the Ice Queen. The whereabouts of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are currently unknown, however the Ice Queen herself has hinted that they were banished to the sun and moon respectively during the darkest hours of the night. The royal guard has mysteriously vanished as well, and members of the Ice Queens elite have begun patrolling the streets of Canterlot. The interviewer who managed to speak with The Ice Queen herself stated that she had a message to the general populace. Her message is as follows: "Ponies of Equestria, all of your leaders have fallen or have been imprisoned. The elements of harmony have been rendered useless, and any who could have conceivably stopped me have been dealt with. If you wish to retain your lives, surrender now."_

 _The claims of the Ice queen were confirmed when the crystal empire was found completely surrounded by a mile-thick layer of ice, and various ponies have reported that the elements of harmony no longer represent their respective elements. When questioned about who the others were, the Ice Queen stated that the alicorns, the elements of harmony, and 'Sir Spike' had been dealt with. Upon further research, it was discovered that this 'Sir Spike' was the purple and green baby dragon that normally accompanied Princess Twilight, and had been knighted only recently. He had more than proven himself worthy of the title, in his assistance of the Princesses, and having saved the Crystal Empire twice. When the Queen was asked about the fate of Sir Spike, she simply told the interviewer that misfortune follows her enemies, and the Knight had mysteriously taken a fall from Princess Twilight's castle. She also stated that a similar fate would follow anypony who made themselves her enemy or caused trouble for the Guards she has sent to gain control of the other towns and cities. The political leaders of these cities have already surrendered, and advise the citizens of Equestria to do the same, to prevent any needless bloodshed._

I gaped at the words on the paper. Spike was still alive. There was only one way to see if the other things were true. Noting the urgency of my task, I teleported to my original destination. I immediately noticed something was off. Normally the cottage was surrounded by wildlife, and birdsong. Now, it was as silent as the grave. I stepped into the cottage, slightly on edge. I heard voices coming from upstairs.

"Please, Fluttershy. Tell me how you got this way." It was Discord.

"And why should I tell a pathetic freak of nature like yourself anything, huh? Especially when you tied me up." The voice was undeniably Fluttershy's, but it was harsh and cruel.

"Fine, I'll let you go."

I heard a clattering sound, then I was literally bowled over by a rogue pegasus.

"Ouch! Fluttershy!" I cried out.

She kept going and ignored me. Discord floated down the stairs, looking solemn. He noticed me brushing myself off, and immediately said, "It wasn't me this time, I promise!"

I looked him in the eye. "I never said it was you. But I need you to come with me so we can help them, and deal with this Ice Queen character."

"Ice Queen?" Discord asked.

"Have you read the news lately?"

"I can't say that I have…" he said, and then proceeded to made a newspaper appear out of thin air. As he read, he eyebrows dropped lower and lower, till they were hanging on to his midsection. "Well then… It seems that a master strategist has leveled the playing field in one fell swoop. I'm quite impressed, actually." The draconequus said, as if talking about an earthworm that had been living in an apple he had bitten. His voice took on a low, threatening tone when he said, "But, she made a crucial mistake. She claims responsibility for harming Fluttershy, and forgot that there is no living being that can dismiss _me_ as a threat and get away with it."

Before he could teleport away, I said, "Wait! I need your help to get the elements back to being themselves!"

He groaned like a teenager that had been told to clean his room. "Oh, I suppose I can help you. But I can't actually do anything, because my magic is chaos based, so I can't restore anything, let alone a group of mares." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I might not be able to _do_ anything, but I can teach you a spell that can return them to normal if you can get them all in one place at the same time." He handed me a scroll, and immediately poofed away.

I looked over the spell scroll he had given me. The spell inscribed on it was incredibly complicated. While it was only a simple memory spell, it became complex when it targeted six ponies, and their pleasant memories of each other. Knowing the potential urgency of my task, I started my hunt for the six mares.

* * *

 **White Flame**

 **-Three days ago**

This was it. After all of that planning, and meticulous money-saving, I had finally bought myself a place in Ponyville. I was so happy, my face hurt from the whole three seconds I had been smiling. I didn't smile often, I wasn't depressed or anything, but smiling is something that you do to tell the ponies around you that you're happy, and most ponies didn't care. I was born with a pure black coat and a silvery mane with a dark orange streak through it. My eyes were the same color as the stripe in my mane, a dark, fiery orange. The notable part, though, was the black coat. Ponies never wasted time in tormenting me as a young colt because it was 'bad luck.' And it wasn't just the other colts and fillies, either. No, the adults made sure to make me miserable as well, the teachers with vicious amounts of extra homework and a sharp cuff to the back to the head if I let them get behind me, and the neighbors by throwing stones and whatever else they had at me. My parents were the worst, turning a blind eye to the cruel neighbors and teachers, and even going so far as to 'beat the evil out of me' as they so _kindly_ put it. The only stallion that was ever kind to me was my shop teacher. At first, I thought he was blind, because he didn't cross himself when he saw me. But after class, he pulled me aside, and said, "Da other teachers and students might treat you wrong, but if you ever need sum'tin to do, the door is never locked for ya, mm'kay?"

I took him up on the offer, and spent almost every spare moment in that shop. I discovered that I was really good at anything I did in there, whether it was woodwork, metalwork, or general tinkering. I found that I could create almost anything I wanted to, from tables to cosplay armor. I felt as though I had gotten my cutie mark in the wrong thing. The mark in question was all white, with a tiny flame inside of a teardrop shaped line, and I had no idea what it meant, or what I had done to get it. I had tried to run away from home, and had spent a week travelling to various places to avoid getting caught. After the local authorities found and caught me, they removed the concealing cloak I was wearing, revealing the useless mark that had appeared during that week.

Of course, the black coat was what everypony saw, but my parents had even more reason to be ashamed to have me as their son. I was a unicorn who couldn't cast any spells, also known as a horned earth pony. The doctors said that it was caused by the central magical core of my horn being unstable, and they couldn't fix it. Translation, I'm screwed, and I'm gonna have to deal with it myself.

I shook my head clear of those rampant thoughts, and looked back at my house. Or at least, where I was going to build it. That's right. Build. I was confident in my house building capability, and had already drawn up the blueprints and gathered the required tools and materials.

I spent half of the day digging the foundation, ate lunch, and began putting the foundation in. It might seem like I was going really fast, but the house was a tiny thing, with one floor, two windows on the east and west sides, and a dividing wall through the middle. It was designed to be adjustable later, for when I settled in and could set up a workshop for myself. After the foundation was done, I continued through the process of building a house. I had been wearing my favorite cloak throughout the day. It was my favorite, not because it looked good, but because it kept me cool through the day and warm at night. Also, it was the same color as my coat, and most ponies assumed that the cloak was shadowing my face instead of me actually having a black coat. As I worked, I felt my worries float away. I was pulled out of the 'zone' however, when a pony threw a newspaper and hit me in the back of the head, startling me. I kicked the offending roll of paper away from me. I never read the news, it was always highlighting horrible tragedies, and missing ponies. Besides, I was busy.

I had started construction of the roof frame when my stomach started making wale calls. Dinnertime.

I wandered into town, hoping to find a good-looking restaurant or eatery. My eyes laid themselves to rest on the strangest building I had ever seen. It looked like it was made of candy! I noted where it was, so I could come back for dessert (if that's what they sold there), then wandered away, eventually finding a place that served good hearty portions and was cheap. When I made it back to the 'candy house' it was closed. It was getting dark, and for some reason, ponies are very suspicious of a dark hooded figure walking the streets at night. I can't imagine why.

I headed back home, and found a nice patch of grass to sleep on.

* * *

 **-Two days ago**

I woke up in a completely different spot… I think. The reason I believed that was because I woke up and felt like I was sleeping on gravel with sharp bits of glass mixed in. I stood up and brushed the grass off of my cloak, then glared at the offending piece of ground. A voice spoke up from behind me, scaring me half to death.

"Mah granny always says, the softest grass hides the lumpiest ground underneath. Looks like you learned that the hard way." I turned to see an orange mare with a straw-colored mane and a Stetson firmly planted on her head. She wandered over to my house frame. "Ya do fine work." She ran her hoof over the floor planking. " _Very_ fine work." The southern pony returned her attention to me. "I have ta ask, though… why are you building this on Apple family property?" her voice suddenly taking on an angry undertone.

I was baffled. "Apple family property?"

"Yes. You are standing on land owned by me and mah family. Did ya think that ya didn't need to get a permit or something?"

"I bought this piece of land from two very polite gentlecolts. They were twins in fact. I have the permit they-" She cut me off.

"Did you say twins?"

"Yes?" I replied, noticing the change in her demeanor.

"Did one of 'em happen to have a red moustache?"

"Do you know them?" one of them did indeed have some impressive facial hair.

The orange mare muttered what sounded like some _very_ interesting curses, and said, "Those two are the Flim-Flam brothers. They sold you a fake deed." She must've seen my expression change, because she laughed before saying, "Don't you worry none. I'm not gonna make ya pack up and leave. However, yer gonna have ta work it off. And judging from the looks of this here half of a house, I'll just have ya fix up some of the things around the farm."

She held out her hoof to shake on it, and I hesitated. Did I really want to estrange myself from the community so soon? If I took the hoof shake, it would reveal my coat color, and if I didn't, I would seem like a rude piece of crap. The mare noticed my hesitation, and said, "Don't worry, ah don't bite."

I sighed, being forced out into the spotlight wasn't one of my favorite things, that's for sure. "I'm more concerned with how hard you can throw a rock." Before she could turn the confused look on her face into words, I reached out and took the hoofshake, revealing my black leg. I tensed, and waited for the inevitable to happen. But it didn't. She didn't smack me, scream, or even cross herself. However, a look of realization appeared on her face.

"Do those idiot superstitious folk really throw rocks at you?" She asked, incredulous.

"Yes. Yes they do. Or pots, wrenches, and anything else they have with them." I answered. Ponies that didn't try to exorcize, run me out of town, or try to generally harm me were rare. I had only met one other, after all. I didn't even know her name, but I already found myself liking her.

The farmpony grimaced slightly, and said, "Well, ya won't get that kinda treatment from me, that's for sure. My name's Applejack, and let me be the first pony to welcome ya ta Ponyville."

She began walking towards a line of apple trees, and when I didn't immediately follow, she said, "Well, come on! Mah chicken coop aint gonna fix itself!"

Applejack immediately put me to work. I fixed a fence, a few chicken coops, and a pig sty gate. In all, it was simple, easy work, even though the two other ponies I saw gave my cloak some funny looks. They left me alone, though. Probably because Applejack told them I was helping around the farm. When I finished the assigned tasks, I had an idea. I took a quick trip home, and returned with some more of my tools. The entire farm was undecorated, and somewhat bland. I didn't really want to impose myself, but my artist mode had turned on and there was no stopping me now. I started by carving vines, leaves, and apples in a pattern on the fenceposts and lower framing of the chicken coops. Nothing that would hinder the structure, of course. I then turned my attention to a wagon, that from the looks of it, carried things to and from town. I did the same pattern on the bottom edge as what I did with the others, and then carved a stylized apple on the left and right sides, and under the apples, I carved, in flowing script, 'Sweet Apple Acres,' copying the words from the sign I had seen at the entrance.

Applejack showed up while I was smoothing out the last few letters, and said, "Well lookie here! And here I was thinking you'd turn out ta be a slacker." She ran her eyes over the wagon. "I hope ya don't mind if I ask ya to do some more work later on. This here is mighty impressive." She started to leave, then said, "Oh! I almost forgot!"

She handed me a couple of bits. And I tried to hand them back, saying, "I was working to pay off the land that I started building on, remember?"

She didn't take the bits back. Instead, she laughed and said, "I was just checkin to see if you were gonna cause trouble for the farm. We weren't gonna use that field anyway, 'cause we can barely harvest the trees we already have. Just think of it as a favor ya owe me, kay?"

I nodded in affirmation, but before either of us could leave, a voice called out.

"Applejack! So good to see you!"

I turned to see a brown stallion with a black mane that was slicked back. Applejack seemed to recognize him, so I stepped back, and simply observed.

"Filthy Rich! Did ya run outa' stock already?"

"I did! A pony came in, saying something about apple muffins, and bought every jar of applesauce I had!"

"I'll go get Big mac, then. Did ya bring money to pay for it?"

"Of course! Who do you think you're talking to?" The stallion said with an arrogant smirk.

"Just checkin." Applejack said, proceeding to trot away.

While we waited, Filthy Rich started a conversation with me. "I don't believe I've seen you around town. Are you new here?"

"I am." I answered. "I recently bought a patch of unused land, and started building a home there." I didn't mention the details, Applejack had let me stay, and that's all that he needed to know.

"Was it you that did this fine work on their dusty old wagon?" He asked.

I nodded, and he said, "I might have to hire you out some time. Barnyard Bargains could certainly use some repairs."

"Do you run a shop in town?"

"The best in town! But I would have lost it if not for Applejack and her family. Here's some advice, kid. Never lie to Applejack. If you do, she _will_ find out, and she _will_ tan your backside."

"I can't say I wouldn't mind that…" I said, letting myself joke around a bit.

"Hah. You know what I mean." He said, stopping and glancing at the red stallion following Applejack in our direction.

Applejack reached us, and started loading the wagon with the aid of the enormous red stallion. I stepped in to help, but only managed one crate. Those two were _fast._ As Filthy Rich and the stallion who I could only guess was Big Mac left for town. I caught Applejack's eye and said, "I'll be working at my place if you need me." Then left.

By the time I got back home, it was lunch time. I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I was famished. I stuck a note up saying that I was in town, then left to find the interesting candy house I had seen yesterday.

It wasn't hard to find it. Stuff like that had a habit of sticking out. And my three-dimensional thinking gave me a good sense of direction. I walked in, and was immediately greeted by an amazing smell… And a widely ginning pink mare.

"Hi!"

"Um… Hi?" I answered.

She then proceeded to spit out the fastest string of words I had ever heard. I only managed to catch snippets like, 'are you new here?' and, 'are you staying?'

She continued this form of speaking long after any normal pony would have needed air, and only stopped when a voice called from the counter, "Pinkie! What have we told you about leaving customers alone?"

The pink mare stopped and said, "Oh… Sorry." She stepped to the side, letting me past. Then zipped out the door at what must've been the speed of sound.

I approached the counter, and the mare who had spoken earlier asked, "What can I getcha?"

"I'll take three chocolate cupcakes." I said, sliding the bits over to her.

I thanked her for the cupcakes, and left.

I returned to my unfinished house, finished the delicious cupcakes, and got back to work. It was almost completed anyway. I finished putting the planks on the roof, layered tar and hay on the top to make it waterproof, put weather resistant and added the door. At some point, I got nailed in the back of the head with a newspaper again, and it received the same treatment as its predecessor. I stepped into my home, and the echo-y rattle that reverberated with each step reminded me of something. I hadn't made any furniture. I suppose I could've gone and bought some, I had enough extra bits for that. But it wouldn't be as fun, and besides, I wanted the house to be _mine_ , and store-bought furniture didn't have the same feel to it.

I headed into town with my empty wagon, and after asking around, found out what stores I could get fresh materials from, since I had only planned for the house, and not it's furnishings. I got lumber from the Saddled Sawhorse, nails and screws from Metalhead's Metalworks (they also had some tools that I might come back for), and almost left town before realizing that I still needed cloth and padding for any couches, chairs, and not to mention the bed that I still didn't have.

After asking what must have been the thousandth pony where I could purchase a swatch of fabric or two, I discovered that the town didn't actually have a store that supplied that kind of thing. The pony did, however mention that the Carousel Boutique might be able to help, because the owner specialized in hoof made clothing. This being my only lead, I headed in the direction that the pony pointed.

I reached a round building that brought to mind a merry go round. 'Carousel' …Huh, clever. I unhitched my wagon, and entered the over-decorated building.

A bell attached to the doorframe rang, and a voice called from a back room, "I will be with you in just a moment! I'm finishing a few stiches" after a few moments, I heard, "…aaand done!" a white unicorn mare with a purple mane came out of a door in the back of the room. "And how may I help you- WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA ARE YOU WEARING!?" she shrieked as her eyes fell on my cloak.

Before I could say a word, the cloak was ripped off of my back. I felt completely exposed. Most ponies never wore clothes, but I was an exception, and squealed like a filly when she stole my clothes. The mare didn't even bat an eyelash. She pulled out a measuring tape and floated it around me. I caught hold of it, and it writhed like a snake as she tried to retrieve it.

"What are you doing!?" she asked, sounding like she was going to die if she didn't get those measurements _right now._

"Well, first off, I'm not here to buy a suit. And second, I like that cloak. Can I have it back?"

"Oh… Of course. I guess I got a little ahead of myself." She meekly levitated the cloak over to me.

I quickly put it back on, but left the hood down. It was probably rude to wear it indoors anyway. "I recently moved here, and discovered that there are no stores that sell swatches of cloth, and was hoping you might be able to help me."

"Is that all you needed?"

"Pretty much."

"Why do you need it? Just out of curiosity, of course."

"I just finished building my house over by Sweet Apple Acres, and need some cloth to make furniture."

"Why don't you just buy the furniture like everypony else?"

"Because I don't want to feature stuff that I didn't make with my own hooves in the house that I built with my own hooves. If you know what I mean."

"I… think I understand. I only wear dresses that I made myself. It would feel wrong to wear something else…"

During the conversation, I followed her into the back, and found myself in a room completely _filled_ with various colors of cloth.

"Wow." Was all I could say. Really, I was speechless. I didn't even know there were this many shades of anything.

I stepped into the room. And tried (and failed) to take in everything. The rows of cloth seemed to go on forever. The building didn't look that big from the outside… I turned to ask for a suggestion, but found her staring at the cloak as if it would bite her. I sighed and took the cloak off, holding it in the crook of one leg. I was going to ask if she had any suggestions, but realized something. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I ever got your name."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I am Rarity, the proprietor of the Canterlot Boutique-" Her eyes grew impossibly wide, and she said, _Ideeeeaaaa!_ In a singsong voice and dashed out of the room, stealing my cloak. _Again._

I dashed after her, before she could permanently damage my cloak. And possibly my pride. I caught up to her when she stopped in a room that was a cross between a sewing room and a bedroom. And she was sitting with her back turned to me and she was using a sewing machine on something… MY CLOAK!

Horrible images of pink lace and chiffon raced through my mind. I leapt in to stop her… but it was too late, Rarity had apparently finished, and levitated it onto my back. She turned me towards a mirror, and I squinted my eyes shut, terrified beyond belief of what she had done to the cloak.

"Well? What do you think?" I heard her ask.

" _Well, I suppose I should assess the damage…"_ I thought to myself. I cracked an eye open, and looked at the mirror… and… couldn't see anything different about it. "Uh… it looks the same as it was before. Did you actually do anything?"

"Well of course! It looks so much better now!" Rarity said, and trotted out of the room.

I followed her back to the fabric room, and I picked a reddish orange color, the same color as the stripe in my mane, and bought four rolls. I probably didn't need that much, but I was going to be double layering it on the seats.

After that, I bought a mattress (I did not have the time, materials, or patience to try and make one.) and a roll of thick foam from a party store (I shudder to think about what kind of parties use stuff as random as this).

After going through the supply list in my head to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. And stopping to grab a bite to eat, I returned home.

As I approached the small house, I heard voices.

"No Pinkie, he's not the kinda pony that likes surprises!" it sounded like Applejack.

"Shh! He's coming!" another voice whispered.

Were they inside my house? I crept up to the side of the house, listening intently.

"Weren't you listening? I said-" Applejack's voice was suddenly cut off.

I had heard enough to get a vague understanding of what was going on. Applejack was correct, I didn't like surprises. They usually involved things like blanket parties and other forms of beatings coming out of nowhere. Also, regardless of their intent, I was exhausted from the day's work, and just wanted to sleep.

What should I do now, though? I knew I should have installed a lock on the door before I put it up. What to do… My eyes caught on something moving in the tree line, and I squinted at it and almost screamed like a filly again. Almost. When I got a better look, I realized that it was just a shadow. Hey… The shadow gave me an idea. I took the extra scraps from the house, and began gluing them together. I wasn't trying to create anything in particular, just a mass of the squares and triangles would suffice.

The glue dried quickly in the cool night air, and I started phase one of my plan. Or… I would have, but I heard the voices inside the house say:

"I thought you said he was coming, Pinkie!"

"He was!"

"I'm gonna go for a fly and look around."

The door immediately opened and a sky-blue pegasus mare stepped out.

As the door shut behind her, I prayed silently that she wouldn't think to check around the corner I was hiding behind. Of course, my prayers went unanswered as she did just what I had hoped she wouldn't do. To my relief, she didn't cry out, instead whispering, "What are you doing?"

"What's your name?" I whispered back, an idea forming in my head.

"Rainbow Dash, and I asked a question first, so answer it, mister!" She whispered/shouted.

I proceeded to unveil my plan for her, and her newly created part in it.

As I finished, she smirked and said, "This is gonna be great."

Rainbow Dash stepped towards the door. Paused to ready herself, and entered at extreme speed, slamming the door behind her. I flinched at the loud *slam* noise. C'mon, I just put that in.

I could hear her pretending to be breathing hard, and I heard, "Rainbow Dash! Whatever is the matter?" Was that… Rarity? Great, the crazy fashion pony was in my house too.

I heard Rainbow Dash say, "We've gotta get out of here, I only just managed to escape it!"

"It?" another pony asked. "What is 'it'?"

"I don't know!" Rainbow Dash wailed, breaking into a fit of hysterical sobbing. Wow… her acting skills were impressive.

That was my cue. I raised the mound of wood and glue to the window, letting the shadow creep inside.

"THERE IT IS!" Dash screamed. I heard the door fly open and a lot of panicked ponies rushing out.

The mare of the hour landed beside me, laughing. When she caught her breath, she said, "I'll go tell them it was a prank, otherwise Twilight's gonna organize a monster hunt." She paused as if she were thinking. "Hey, that was funny and all, but why didn't you want to go to Pinkie's party? Uh… I also didn't get your name."

"I'm White Flame. I don't really 'do' parties. Or at least, not the surprise kind, late at night, when I really just want to sleep. Besides, my house isn't exactly fit for company at the moment"

She chuckled. "I get ya." She said, paused a moment, then continued, "I'll tell Pinkie to do one in the afternoon, without trying to scare you half to death."

"She doesn't need to do that." I protested.

Out of nowhere, a pink mare with an even darker frizzy pink mane appeared, cheerily said, "Well, I'm going to anyway!" and zipped away.

I blinked. "What just happened?"

"That's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash said, then she darted away, calling, "Catch ya later!"

I picked up the mattress I had purchased earlier, and brought it inside. After putting it in a corner, I fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

 **Yesterday**

I woke up to a knock at the door. My first thought was _'did I sleep in?'_ but when I checked the window, it looked like Celestia had only just brought the sun up. I pulled my cloak straight, and opened the door.

I was greeted by _six_ mares, four of them I had met before. I recognized Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. I had never met the other two. There was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, and… That would be the new Alicorn Princess. Crud. I didn't know why she was here, but I was cynical enough to convince myself it wasn't good.

And now they were staring. I didn't know how long I must've been standing there like a slack jawed idiot, but the silence felt pretty awkward. Turning to the Alicorn Princess (Crap, I forgot her name! Twilight… Never mind, I'll just go with her general title.) I said, "Princess! I wasn't expecting you! How may I help?"

The Alicorn frowned in distaste, as if I had said something wrong. Double Crud.

"Please, just call me Twilight."

That was all? I thought I was gonna be banished right where I was standing for a second. "Pri- Twilight, with all due respect, may I ask what you are doing here? Right on my doorstep?"

"That's what I wanna know." Rainbow Dash muttered, barely audible.

"We wanted to help you get settled in." Twilight said.

"We do!?" the other mares chorused at the same time that I said, "You do!?"

She answered both questions at once… or maybe ignored one of them… by saying, "Yes."

"I assure you that I mean no offence when I say this, but… I don't need any help." I was using my polite gentlecolt voice, the one that I only used when I was really nervous, or when I was trying to convince an adult not to smack me. These two circumstances usually happened at the same time.

Twilight paused a moment, then said, "Then would you mind terribly if we stay and watch you work?"

Against my better judgement, I smirked and said, "I don't think you would listen if I said no. And besides, this is technically Applejack's property, you should ask her."

"Hey! I told ya that it was fine!" The farm pony protested.

"Applejack, the fact of the matter is that my stay here is confined to how long you decide to let me stay. Until I can save up enough to make this place officially mine by buying it from the rightful owners, and not some scammers, I live here on your every whim and desire. In other words, I get to stay if I'm useful."

The orange earth pony looked hurt by my words. I instantly regretted saying them, even though it was a philosophy that practically ran my life. She turned to the other mares, and said, "c'mon girls, I need y'all ta help me do some paperwork at town hall."

Five of them left, and Twilight stayed. She just sat there, so I started working on my first order of business. A bedframe. I had made plenty of them in that old shop, so long ago. Me and my shop teacher would split the profits from the things we made, beds, sofas, tables, etcetera. I tried as hard as I could to pay him back for the simple gift of kindness that he gave me, by putting all of my effort into every piece.

As I finished cutting the wood to the right length, Twilight spoke up.

"Why do you wear that cloak? Isn't it hot?" She asked.

"It isn't hot. And even if it was, a little discomfort is much more preferable to a broken rib, or a black eye."

"What do those things have to do with the cloak?"

I groaned internally. I really didn't want everypony and their dog knowing about my 'unlucky' black coat, but it seems that the ponies here were far too social for that. I flipped down my hood, letting her see it. The accursed hairs all over my body that brought me so much grief. The stupid color couldn't even be bleached or dyed, I had tried countless times.

The look in her eyes told me she still didn't get it.

"Look, I'm kind of busy at the moment, so I'll give you the short version. A solid black coat is considered bad luck by some ponies, and those ponies don't exactly hold themselves back when they let me know how they feel about it."

"You don't mean that they actually…"

"They do. From throwing rocks to hatchets. And the only 'surprise parties' that I have attended were blanket parties. Even my own parents took it upon themselves to 'beat the evil out of me,' as they put it."

"I- I'm sorry that you had such a hard life."

I remained silent, and began working on attaching the different pieces of the frame together. I would finish it inside, so I didn't have to lug it through the doorway, but I could put together some of the segments out here in the open air. As I finished with the first segment, Twilight spoke again.

"You're a unicorn." She said.

"Yes." I knew what the follow up question would be. "And to answer your next question, no. My horn doesn't work. I can't levitate, transmute, or even make light. So, using it to help me build this bed is out of the question."

Her face fell. It looked like she was going to start crying. Before she could, I said, "It's fine. There's no way you could have known. And I've lived without magic my whole life, so whatever it is that I'm missing out on can't be that great."

I got back to work, and as I finished the last segment a few minutes later, I heard a buzzing noise. Looking around for the source, I found Twilight with her eyes glowing, wings splayed out, and she was hovering two feet off the ground.

"What are you-" I started, but was cut off as I felt an incredible force slam into my horn, sending me to my knees. Images started flashing through my head.

Two armies, one led by Princess Celestia, the other led by a unicorn that seemed to embody darkness, swallowing up all the light around him.

Rainbow Dash, but she had scars all over her, and one wing was replaced by a mechanical one.

Applejack, working in a factory that was producing thousands of cans of applesauce.

Pinkie Pie, with her hair straight, smashing a large boulder to powder before it landed on Rainbow Dash.

Rarity, sewing military outfits together as fast as she could.

The yellow pegasus I had seen, shearing the wool off of countless sheep, and not exactly thrilled to be doing so, either.

They all had one thing in common. Their eyes were missing something that I couldn't place. I didn't know what it was, but the girls I had seen this morning had it.

As I snapped back to reality, I let out a squeak. It was the only noise I could make, being as I felt like I had taken a hit to the goodies, that is, if they were on my forehead.

"Well? Did it work?" I heard the Princess ask.

"Did _what_ work?" I asked, stumbling a little (I was still on my hooves, somehow.) as I tried to get my vision to stop spinning.

As my vision focused, I found that Twilight suddenly looked very sheepish. "I… ah… tried to fix your horn."

All I could say was, "Oh."

She adopted a sad look on her face. "It didn't work, did it?"

While I had never had the ability to use magic, that didn't stop me from learning a few of the basic things I _should_ be able to do. And I used to spend my alone time trying to do the impossible. "Well, I don't feel any different." I said, closing my eyes and trying to will a hammer to rise off of the ground. After a minute of this, I changed tactics, instead just willing my stupid horn to work. I thought I felt a tingle in my horn, but it soon disappeared. I kept trying, pushing my mind to its limits… and something broke. It was as if a dam had given way inside my mind, and I was flooded with …emotions? I felt the guilt of potentially harming a pony, shame for taking something for granted, and a determination to aid a pony in need. What stood out the most was that these feelings seemed to be coming from Twilight.

I tried to get it to stop. These weren't mine, and emotions were personal. I willed whatever was happening to stop, and like flipping a switch, it did. I opened my eyes, and found Twilight staring at me.

"Your horn sparked for a moment." Was all she said.

I scratched the back of my leg. I didn't want to tell her that I had accidentally taken a peek inside her head. "It didn't work."

The guilt I had felt was shown on her face as she said, "I-I'm sorry. I should've asked first."

"It's fine." I said as I began carrying the segments of the bedframe inside. With my hooves. One at a time.

"Please don't be angry. I was only trying to help."

I wasn't angry, even though I had every right to be. She had recklessly taken a risk that could have had dangerous consequences, but I couldn't bring myself to be angry. The look inside her head had revealed that she didn't do it to increase her social standing, or to make her more famous. She had literally done it to be kind. And besides, the way I talked to Applejack had probably made her want to prove that kindness could be given for free. "I'm not angry. And just so you know, I wouldn't actually believe that Applejack would throw me out, it's just that I never let my guard down, and let some of my nagging fears slip out. I can't really claim to be an optimist, but I'm also not a pessimist. I make reasonable predictions, but never lose sight of the other possible outcomes, good or bad." I said as I brought the final piece of the bed inside and started screwing the pieces together.

She had followed me inside and out, as I carried the pieces in. When I sat down to screw the pieces together, she asked, "Who taught you to build stuff like this?"

"A very open-minded shop teacher." I answered, wondering how much of my life story she wanted. Before she could inevitably ask another question, I turned the tables and asked her a question. "When you tried to fix my horn, some strange images flashed through my head, would you know anything about them?"

As I proceeded to describe the strange images, her eyes grew larger with every word. And when I finished, she said, "Those were my friends, but in an alternate timeline. I only ever saw Applejack, but some of the descriptions fit what she told me."

"aaand those would be in my head because…?" I prompted, kind of wishing I had let her keep asking her own questions, because now I was _really_ confused.

"Well…" She said, thinking for a moment. "There could be multiple causes. My guess is that my magical signature is somehow linked to the timestream, because I used a _lot_ of spells when I was traveling in and out of it. When I tried to activate your inner magic, you felt the link."

I nodded my head like I understood all of it. I didn't really, but I also wasn't a specialist in magic, or time travel (wait, wasn't time travel, like, _really_ dangerous?). I finished the last of the bed, and moved my mattress onto it. Looking at where the sun was, I found that it was noon-ish. My stomach rumbled, and I headed to town, the Princess still on my heels.

When I got there, I bought a wheat ball sub for myself from a street vendor. I asked Twilight if she wanted one, but she declined. After finishing the sandwich, I traveled to Sugarcube Corner to satisfy my sweet tooth. When I got there, I smelled something indescribably good. I had never smelled something like it. As I walked in, I spotted Pinkie behind the counter, and was about to ask about where Applejack was, but Twilight beat me to the punch.

"Pinkie Pie? Weren't you helping Applejack?" She asked.

"I was, but I promised the Cakes that I would fill in for them this afternoon, and Applejack was really just signing a bunch of papers, so there wasn't much I could do." The bubbly pink mare answered in a cheerful tone. "Wanna try the new Secret Surprise?" She asked, holding out two strange looking pastries.

Twilight took them with her magic, and passed one to me. I hesitated before taking it, and the alicorn laughed.

"It's on me, okay?"

I was more worried about if the pastry was safe to eat, blue spots and all, but I took it anyway. Twilight took the first bite, and exclaimed, "Cotton Candy? How did you…?"

I took a bite, and was confused. I didn't taste cotton candy, I tasted licorice. Before I could say anything, Pinkie said, "Go on! Take another bite! It's not called the Secret _Surprise_ for nothing!"

The lavender alicorn proceeded to do so, and once again, a surprised look flooded her face. "What did you put in this? It's amazing!"

Pinkie Pie grinned mischievously. "That's where the 'secret' part comes in. I can't tell you!" she said, laughing like it was the punchline for a particularly funny joke.

Apparently, this happened a lot, because Twilight didn't even raise an eyebrow.

"…aaaanyway, I should really get back to work." I said over Pinkie's boisterous laughter (and snorting).

Before I could even take a step though, Twilight stopped me and said, "I should go check on Applejack. Pinkie? Didn't you have something to ask White Flame?"

"Oh, yeah!" the bubbly pink mare immediately cornered me, and Twilight disappeared like a gust of wind.

Great, I was cornered by a crazy mare in a bakery. I was kind of nervous, the look she was giving me was intense and unreadable. I sat there, sweat rolling down the back of my neck, and suddenly, out of nowhere, an idea popped into my head. But no, it was _such_ an invasion of personal space. Like she was doing, her nose almost pressing against mine. My paranoia won out, and I once again found myself willing my horn to work, hoping that I would get the same result.

It was easier this time, therefore faster. I felt it activate, and was almost overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions from every pony in the area. I focused on Pinkie, and managed to block everything else out.

She was happy that I liked her secret surprise, sad that Twilight had to leave, and nervous because I might say no if she asked me her question. Of course, this was what I was able to retrieve from the tsunami of pure, unrestrained joy, that had absolutely no reason for being there, it was like joy flowed through her veins or something.

In fact, there was so much joy that I smiled, and barely prevented myself from laughing for no reason other than to laugh.

Pinkie's emotions suddenly made a substantial change, everything was consumed as the river of joy suddenly overflowed, and I got the impression that it was because I smiled.

She dashed around the room, bouncing off of every possible surface, somehow not breaking anything or hurting herself.

She didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, so I asked, "Uh… what did you need?"

Finally, she stopped. And then proceeded to start talking so fast that I barely managed to catch what she was saying.

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to have a party today but I remembered that we have to go to the castle of the two sisters to see how well it's going, so instead do you want to have a welcome to Ponyville party tomorrow?" She said, barely pausing between the words, blending them together.

I only caught the question at the end, so I said, "Uh… sure?" Sheesh, talking to her was disconcerting.

"Yay!" she squealed before disappearing through the door to the kitchen.

I shook my head, deactivated the spell, and left, she was definitely a unique pony. The emotions that I had felt still lingered, and I headed home, hoping that I could at least get a table set up.

The design for the table was etched in my brain by the time I got there, but I put it on hold when I looked at the door to my house. I remembered that a group of ponies had decided to enter without permission, and were only able to do so because the door didn't have a lock. I headed into town _again._

Like the mattress, I had the know-how to build a lock, but didn't have the time. But, after buying a lock and its corresponding key, I bought a small but thick sheet of metal, a bag of the smallest metal ball-bearings I could find, and a few small hinge pins.

I returned home with the materials and took the door off of its hinges, putting it on some extra scrap (no, not my shadow puppet, I threw it away), turning it into a temporary worktable. On the worktable, I popped open the lock I had bought, and added a small modification to it. The modification that I added was something that I had invented a while ago, but never had the opportunity to test. It was slightly complicated, but I enjoyed the challenge. Basically, what it did was preventing anything but the key for the lock from unlocking it, using the ball-bearings as a counterweight. When I was done, I cut a hole in the side of the door, and attached the lock (after making sure that it worked properly) to it.

I was about to put the door back up, but found a group of mares standing outside. Applejack stepped forward and held out a fancy looking piece of paper. When I took it, she said, "Now, I don't want to hear any more of this, ya hear?"

The look in her eyes told me that the words I said earlier still stung a little. "I'm sorry, Applejack. I shouldn't have said those things."

The hurt look in her eyes faded a little, and she said, "It's alright, Sugarcube. I can't expect ya ta blindly trust me after only a few days. Besides, I was gonna do this anyway, so it's just another thing I don't have ta worry about."

"I'm glad that you're so understanding." I replied, glancing at the door leaning unattached against the wall, subtly trying to tell them that I had work to do.

Luckily, they took the hint, and fount a spot out of the way to watch me work. I still couldn't figure out why they were so interested in me, but they weren't hurting anything, so I put the door up and worked on the other things I had planned.

It was still only a few hours after I had eaten, so I started working on the table and chairs. The table was quick, only really needing a simple design and a few parts. The chairs, on the other hoof, took a lot longer, and I only finished one before Twilight walked up and said they had to be somewhere, and they would try to visit tomorrow.

Of course, another newspaper hit the back of my head, and this time I turned around to see a grey pegasus flying away. I hoped I wasn't being charged for this, because my little nest-egg was starting to dwindle. I was gonna have to find a job. Realizing this, I picked up the newspaper and read the job listings. None of the things I saw were jobs I felt qualified to do.

I tossed the paper aside (wow, the area around my house was starting to look like a wooden massacre. I was gonna have to clean up soon, before it got out of control).

The rest of the day was spent on the second chair, part of the couch, and a trip into town to buy dinner.

After the long day, I dusted myself off, and climbed into bed.

I groaned in misery. I couldn't sleep.

I was just barely awake, feeling my consciousness drift away, when a horrible feeling of dread filled my body, forcing me back into reality.

I got out of bed, and sat down in one of the chairs. I couldn't find the source of this horrible feeling in my gut, and it was growing worse by the second.

Maybe a walk could help.

I stepped outside and started walking around, the light of the moon was making sure that I wouldn't get lost. This was my secret pleasure, walking around at night, enjoying the cool night air and the peaceful silence. Eventually the feeling I was having faded to the back of my memory.

I stepped back inside, and tried to fall asleep again. The dread was gone, but I still couldn't sleep. Groaning, I sat at the table, coming up with different ideas on what to do next for my house.

* * *

 **Present Day**

*knock knock knock*

My head shot up from the table, I must've managed to doze off.

I opened the door, expecting to see the six mares. It wasn't them. Instead, a gray pegasus stood there the same one that liked to peg me with newspaper, then run off. Her eyes stood out to me. They were pointing in completely different directions. Not only that, but they were red rimmed and puffy, signs that she had been crying.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, worriedly.

"B-breaking news." She said, stumbling over the words a little. Giving me a newspaper, she flew off.

My eyes skimmed the report, and I felt my stomach sink. This was _bad._ Princesses gone or incapacitated? The Elements of Harmony useless?The Equestrian Times would never make this up, they were too reputable for that.

I rushed off to town, hoping that this was all just a cruel prank.

It wasn't a prank. I found myself in the middle of town, surrounded by ponies asking questions to the mayor, who stood on an erected platform to address us.

After a while, the mayor said, "There really isn't much more I can tell you. The best we can do is hope that nothing bad happens, and that means preventing anypony from getting hurt. All I ask is that you don't do anything rash that could endanger yourselves. Please return to your regular activities until the Ice Queen's elite show up, and then we will try to welcome them on peaceful terms.

The crowd dispersed, and I found a nearby bench to sit on. I read the paper over and over, trying to find a mistake that could tell me if it was true or not. Eventually I gave up. As a sat there, pondering what was to come, I realized that I should go check on Twilight. I was still clinging to the hope that the paper was lying. If this was false, she would be fine.

I headed to the castle. It wasn't hard, a giant crystal tree was sort of hard to miss.

When I reached it, I found the doors wide open. "Hello? The door was open, is everything all right?" I called.

When no answer came, I started to look around. Or, I would have, but the main hall had several doorways branching off of it. How was I supposed to find my way around _now?_ Hey… maybe I could find if there was anypony here without checking every nook and cranny… I fired up the only spell I could use, and immediately felt two emotional signatures in the castle.

I headed for them, and as I got closer, I could distinguish the emotions. From Twilight came an overwhelming sorrow, with a helpless panic from being trapped faintly showing underneath.

The other emotional signature was one that I had never felt before, and I didn't know who he was. From him came a worry for Twilight, a bit of shame for not being there for her, and a strong sense that justice would find those that did this, even if he had to lead it to them.

I got closer with each step, and found myself walking down a short hall. At the end of it, there was a doorway that looked like somepony had taken a bite out of it. "Twilight?" I called. "There's some news story going around about Canterlot falling. Are you alright?" As the words left my lips, the other character I had felt was immediately suspicious, and very protective of Twilight. I felt him moving, and as I stepped through the doorway he lunged at me. I stepped to the side, letting the ballistic baby dragon fly past. Huh, this must be the dragon I had read about. But… didn't it say that Sir Spike was out of the picture?

Before he could try again, I asked, "Are you Sir Spike?" when I saw him nod in affirmation, I said, "Thank goodness! I was worried that this wasn't a prank, and Celestia really was banished to the sun." Temporarily forgetting what I had felt from Twilight.

"What!?" he yelled.

I held out the paper, which for whatever reason I had kept. He took it and scanned it for about a minute. I felt his emotions, there was shock that Celestia and Luna had been taken down, realization about who did this to Twilight, and dark humor in the fact that the populace now thought he was dead. He also believed every word of it, bar his demise.

He turned to me, saying, "You. What are you doing here? You're in danger by simply talking to me or Twilight, this paper says as much."

I hadn't thought about the risks of coming. But, even if I had, I probably would have come anyway. Twilight had made an attempt to fix my busted horn, and even though it didn't work, the thought was a priceless gift in itself. "I wanted to make sure Twilight was okay, regardless of the risks." I answered.

I saw a calculating look in his eyes. My continuous spell told me that he was planning something, but the look in his eyes told me something else. I had always thought that dragons were dumb, greedy, bruteish monstrosities. With nothing going through their thick skulls other than wealth and food (which for dragons, the two ended up being the same thing). However, with him, I saw a vast intelligence behind his eyes. I had heard that Princess Twilight was incredibly smart, and I guess that her dragon assistant had caught some of that.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when he said, "I need you to stay here and wait for a unicorn named Starlight. When she gets here, tell her that Zecora knows where I am and if she comes looking for me, to do it discreetly. And also, do not, under any circumstance, tell anypony other than her that I am alive or where I went. Only you, Twilight, and Starlight know, and the fate of Equestria may depend on it staying that way. I'm making a huge gamble by trusting you, so if you make me regret it, there won't be a place on this planet that will save you from me." The threat was stated with so much confidence, I didn't need to sense his emotions to be able to tell he wasn't bluffing.

Then, he ran past me, back into Twilight's room, gave the crying lavender alicorn a hug, and before I could stop him, jumped out of the window.

I rushed over to the window, but instead of seeing the dragon plastered to the ground below, I saw him running towards the Everfree forest.

I waited a few hours for Starlight to show up. At first, I had tried to comfort Twilight, but whatever was wrong with her was severe, and she was absolutely convinced that I was going to try and hurt her in some way, so I gave up. When a unicorn came through the door, I asked, "Are you Starlight?"

She spun around and lit her horn up, her emotions telling me that she was expecting Spike, and she now thought the dark hooded figure was responsible for him not being here. I remembered that I still had the hood of my cloak up, so I pulled it down and raised my hoofs up in the universal sign of peace. "I have a message for Starlight. Are you her?"

"Yes, I am Starlight Glimmer. Where is Spike?" her horn was still glowing, and she was ready to strike out if I tried anything funny.

"Spike asked me to tell you that Zecora would know where he was, and that you should be discreet if you wish to follow him, as he wants to take advantage of the mistake in the newspaper."

The pinkish unicorn nodded, and said, "Thank you. But, who are you, exactly?"

"I am White Flame. I moved to Ponyville a couple of days ago." I answered.

"Then please return home, and try to make sure that nopony see's you leave. This Ice Queen character seems to be very dangerous." She said.

I took her advice, and quietly left, turning my spell off when I did so. There wasn't much I could do to help anyway.

When I returned home, I noticed that there were scratch marks around the lock I had installed. Somepony had tried to pick the lock. It was an earth pony or a pegasus, too, because unicorns would just use their telekinesis to fiddle with the mechanism.

"There you are!"

I spun around to find Big Mac looking down at me. Sheesh, how did I miss _him?_ "Big Mac! I didn't notice you!"

"I just needed to tell ya that Applejack is feelin outa sorts today, and she was tryin ta pick the lock on that there door." he said. I had never heard him speak before, but his voice was deep enough that I felt the ground vibrate.

"She was trying to break in to my house?" I asked incredulously.

The large red stallion saw the look on my face, and said, "It isn't what ya think, somepony cast a spell on her, and now she's being the opposite of her Element, makin her as dishonest as a manehattan politician."

I nodded my head in understanding. It made sense, Twilight was acting weird too. "It's fine. Maybe we can get her back to normal soon." I replied.

Big Mac left, and, having nothing else to do, I started working on some more furniture.

I was almost finished with a nightstand when a harsh, commanding voice called out, "You there!"

I jumped, startled. I turned to find a unicorn in black steel plate armor. The chest piece was stamped with a stylized snowflake. I couldn't see any defining features behind the armor. This must be one of the elite that I had read about in the paper. "Can I help you?" I asked politely.

"A few ponies saw you leaving the Castle belonging to the former Princess Twilight. What were you doing there?" he asked in a tone that carried cruelty and unearned authority.

I activated my spell without even thinking. It was proving to be useful, and I could tell if I was in any danger with it. "Uh… I don't know what you're talking about. I've been here all morning." I answered, hoping that he would just buy it and leave me alone.

He didn't. "You're lying." His voice became darker, and I sensed a malicious glee coming from him. "I guess I'll just make an example of you, then."

Suddenly, I was lifted off the ground by his telekinesis, and found myself approaching a line of dark, scary trees. I would have protested, or cried out, but I felt that this would only make him angrier.

We stopped in front of a dark cave, and the armored pony picked up a rock with his telekinesis and threw it. when the rock landed in front of the cave, a small figure pounced on it. I recognized it from some book covers. A manticore cub.

"Perfect." He said, proceeding to throw another rock.

This one nailed the cub right between the eyes, and it let out a yowl of pain. There was a mighty roar from deeper in the cave, and the armored pony dropped me like a sack of potatoes and teleported away.

Out of the cave came an enormous manticore, likely one of the parents. I scrambled to my hooves and started running as fast as my legs could carry me. I was actually a pretty fast runner, being as I had been given a lot of practice at school. I wasn't counting on the thick underbrush, however, and tripped on a tree root, sending me sprawling.

The manticore immediately caught up to me, and pinned me to the ground with one forepaw. I could feel it's emotions, and it was _pissed._

My only thought was, 'I'm gonna die.' I wasn't even scared. The thought was just a simple statement of fact, and nothing more.

 **AN: there ya go! Chapter two. I've gotta say, that was pretty fast by my standards. Anyway, I am well aware that the story is called 'Spike's Origins' and that he was only in this chapter for a couple of paragraphs. Don't worry, I'll be putting him in first person perspective in the next chapter. Also, what do you think of White Flame? I promise, that wasn't his original name. Thoughts? Comments? Critiques? Leave a review for whatever you wanna flap your jaw about, and if you ask a question I'll answer it (unless it spoils the story, you'll have to wait like everybody else. Thanks!**


	3. My deepest apologies for the delay

p class="MsoNormal"I will be rewriting this story because I feel that the quality is significantly lacking. For now, I will not be releasing any more chapters because I'm working on this story along with a few others. If you'd like some more info, check my profile page. Thank you!/p 


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